The signing of the MOUs took place during Oil and Gas Investment Day, a pre-event for the 2021 Indonesia Petroleum Association (IPA) Convex, on Thursday, June 17, 2021. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only limited people may attend the offline event with the rest of the audience participating online. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif, and head of the Task Force for Oil and Gas Upstream Business Activities (SKK Migas), Dwi Soetjipto, attended the event along with other officials and oil and gas company’s executives.

Arifin mentioned in his remarks that, as Indonesia competed with other oil and gas producers in attracting investors, his ministry had pledged to improve the country’s oil and gas investment climate. According to him, contributions from government, businesses and all layers of society are crucial for developing Indonesia's oil and gas sector. “We need to build strategic partnerships among the government, businesses and people,” said Arifin.

In addition, SKK Migas also emphasised the importance of collaboration between parties. Dwi hoped that the government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Finance, and SKK Migas could accelerate the implementation and improvement of fiscal incentives and policies in order to attract investors. “We hope to provide better and more effective fiscal policies for investors to increase oil and gas production and exploration activities in Indonesia,” said Dwi.

In the event, Director of PetroChina, Qian Mingyang, signed estimated 60 BBTUD of gas which forecasted to be on-stream by 2036 in order to support the development plan of Pusri III-B project. PetroChina also signed estimated 50 BBTUD of gas which forecasted to be on-stream by 2023 for Steam Flood operation to PHR in Rokan Block, Riau.

PetroChina is committed to collaborating with all stakeholders to achieve production target. Qian said that this collaboration had resulted in stable production of 50,000 BOEPD for over a decade, even though the block contract is expiring in 2023. “PetroChina together with its partners have managed to maintain our production at 50,000 BOEPD for 15-16 years,” he said.

He continued that PetroChina looked forward to further supporting Jambi’s economy. “To maximise the development and resources, we express our interest to further develop the resources in Jabung and also look forward to cooperating and coordinating with potential buyers to support the economy in the region,” Qian added.