"As far as this project is concerned, the signing of the memorandum of understanding has already taken place and Russia’s Rosneft and Indonesian company Pertamina held a technical meeting. Russia won the tender for construction of a facility in the Tuban region. The overall sum of investments may reach $15 billion," Supriyadi said, adding that the works on the project had already begun and were expected to end in 2023.
Moreover, Indonesia is ready to reduce its oil output slightly and is in talks with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on the issue, Indonesian ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi told Sputnik.
Indonesia temporarily suspended its OPEC membership in December since it was unable to contribute oil production cuts necessary under a deal on the issue reached in Vienna.
"We were indeed asked to cut down our oil production, but due to the reasons I have already mentioned we are ready to agree to a small reduction, no more. We are in active talks on the issue [with OPEC]. We do not know what they will lead to," Supriyadi said. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo agreed in May 2016 to strengthen the defense industry cooperation between their countries.
"It is needed in order to support public spending and budget planning," Supriyadi explained.
However, the ambassador did not specify which price for oil was suitable for the country.
"Unfortunately, I cannot give an answer to this question. Perhaps Pertamina [Indonesia's state-held energy company] knows. It is only obvious for me that the price that is too high is not very good, but too low is also bad," the diplomat stressed.
In 2016, OPEC reached an agreement in Vienna to reduce daily oil production during the first half of 2017 in an effort to boost global oil prices. The agreement was also supported by 11 non-OPEC states, which promised to jointly reduce oil output by 558,000 barrels per day, with Russia pledging to cut production by 300,000 barrels daily. In May, the deal was extended by nine months and is now valid until the end of March 2018.
