Pertamina's offshore oil chase

After two years of belt-tightening, Indonesia's NOC is seeking to plug the country's energy consumption gap

The figures are huge. Pertamina will spend $3.24bn on its upstream business in 2018—a 21% rise from a year earlier. Most of the upstream budget will be invested in domestic fields, notably in the Mahakam block in East Kalimantan, which Pertamina has bought from Total and Inpex, as well as in the Jambaran gasfield after acquiring ExxonMobil's 41.4% stake in 2017. But with its finances in better order, Pertamina is also venturing further offshore. After more than a year of negotiations, the group expects to complete its acquisition of an operating interest in Iran's Mansouri oilfield in May. And in late 2017, the Jakarta-based NOC signed a memorandum of understanding with Algeria's state-owned