Antara, Jakarta – State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina has secured the rights to operate the Menzel Ledjmet Nord (MLN) oil and gas block in Algeria for the next 35 years following the extension of its oil concession contract.
Nicke Widyawati, President Director of Pertamina, informed that the oil and gas block in Algeria is one of the main overseas sources of oil for the state company.
"The acquisition of the overseas oil block with the concept of 'bringing the barrel home' is Pertamina's strategic step to maintain national energy resilience," Widyawati said in a statement received in Jakarta on Saturday.
The concession contract, signed in the Algerian capital Algiers on Thursday (June 15, 2023), reflects the Algerian authorities' trust in Pertamina's performance, she stressed.
She noted that besides ensuring Pertamina's crude oil production, the new contract has also authorized the company to develop a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) factory with an annual capacity of one million metric tons for domestic use in Indonesia.
"With this breakthrough, we expect that LPG imports can be reduced and Indonesia's balance of trade can be strengthened," Widyawati said.
She also highlighted that the MLN block has the potential to develop green energy, including solar photovoltaic (PV) as a green electricity source for the block's operations.
"This is Pertamina's firm and concrete commitment to reducing carbon emissions in its entire business lines, consistent with the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principle," she said.
The MLN oil field is one of the oil and gas blocks in Algeria's Sahara region, which has been operated by Pertamina since May 2014 through its upstream sub-holding.
The block has a production capacity of 35,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) and has 58 solar panels that can produce 1.141 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy annually, helping reduce emissions by 7,507 tons of CO2 annually.