PT Pertamina reported US$1.83 billion (Rp23.8 trillion) in net profit in the first half of the year, or an increase of 221 percent from the same period last year.
Chief Executive of the state-owned energy company Dwi Soetjipto attributed the increase in profit to improved performance of its business units and efficiency in operation.
“We are grateful that efficiency and increase in performance in the upstream and downstream operations have resulted in an increase in net profit to US$1.83 billion,” Dwi said.
He said in the first half of the year, the company was still confronted with declining prices of oil in the world market.
The condition served a big blow to oil companies in the world though the impact was less damaging on Pertamina, he said.
The prices, however, began to pick up in the following three months, he added.
Pertaminas Finance Director Arief Budiman said in the first half of 2016 the company recorded US$17.19 billion in income, down 21 percent from US$21.79 billion in the same period last year.
Its operating income rose 110 percent from US$1.56 billion in the first six months of 2015 to US$3.28 billion in the same period in 2016.
“We are strong in cash flow with balance reaching US$5 billion. Therefore, we are strong enough to carry out corporate action when necessary,” he said.
He said the company produced 640,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day consisting of 305,000 barrels of crude oil and 1,938 mmscfd of gas.
Investment in a number of upstream projects have been implemented such as in the 1×55 MW geothermal power project of PLTP Ulubelu 3, and 2×55 MW PLTP Lumut Balai now 45 percent completed .
The company also continued to develop infrastructure both for gas transport and processing and marketing.
Among gas pipe projects such as Arun-Belawan-KlM-KEK, Muara Karang-Muara Tawar, Gresik-Semarang, and Porong-Grati gas pipes have been more than 80 percent completed.
Development of processing infrastructure is being accelerated such as Refinery Development Masterplan Program (RDMP) of Kilang Balikpapan, which is now in the final phase of “Basic Engineering Design”, and RDMP of the Cilacap refinery now in the phase of “Front End Engineering Design”.
Meanwhile, a number of marketing infrastructure projects have been in the final phase of development such as Pulau Sambu and Tanjung Uban oil fuel terminals, procurement of oil fuel and crude oil tankers of the General Purposes (GP) and Medium Range (MR) types with delivery expected this year.