President asks Pertamina to increase oil production

The Pertamina chief explained that the state company`s oil production in 2007 was expected to jump 7.2 percent to 140,000 barrels per day from last year`s output of 135,000 barrels per day.
He said next year Pertamina would increase its oil production to 170,000 barrels per day. "Pertamina wants to achieve a production increase of 13 percent by 2012."
The increase in Pertamina`s oil output, according to Ari, would come from the Pondok Tengah and Cepu oil fields which would begin producing at the end of 2007.
He said the president also asked Pertamina to continue increasing the capacity of its oil refineries in cooperation with foreign companies such as those from Ecuador and Iran.