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After pulling back from a bid on an Iraqi oil block over cost concerns, Pertamina is now focusing its ambitions in the country on reviving exploration prospects it was pursuing prior to the US-led invasion of 2003.

Its targets include Block 3 in the Western Desert near Basra, which is believed to potentially have two or three oil fields, and the Tuba oil field in the southern part of the country.

Af t er a meeting with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and the Iraqi Embassy’s charge d’affaires in Jakarta, Pertamina president director Karen Agustiawan said the Indonesian government was helping it negotiate with Iraqi.

“We want the projects to be reactivated,” Karen said. “The negotiations are now proceeding on a government-to-government basis.”

Block 3, which is estimated to hold 3 billion barrels of oil, was awarded to Pertamina and the Iraqi Oil Exploration Company by Saddam Hussein’s regime in late 2002.

Prior to the invasion, Pertamina also was competing for a stake in the Tuba oil field with India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Algeria’s Sonatrach and Taiwan’s CPC, all of which are state-owned.

However, an agreement with the Iraqi government had yet to be signed when Hussein was overthrown.

The Tuba oil field is believed to have a potential output of 180,000 barrels a day.

Evita Legowo, director general of oil and gas at the Energy Ministry, said the government fully supported the state oil and gas producer’s efforts in Iraq. “We want to see Pertamina working together with the Iraqi side,” she said.

Pertamina had been considering bidding for a stake in the West Qurna block in Iraq’s first round of bidding since the invasion. The block is believed to hold 8.6 billion barrels of oil.

It now yields about 280,000 barrels a day, but has projected output of 600,000 barrels per day.

However, Pertamina decided to withdraw its bid because of cost concerns.

With proven oil reserves of about 112 billion barrels and as much as 150 billion barrels of probable reserves, Iraq offers one of the last untapped frontiers for the major international oil companies.

Currently, Pertamina is also involved in projects in Libya, Sudan, Vietnam, Qatar and Malaysia.

The company is hoping to pump an additional 5,000 barrels a day from new domestic and overseas fields as part of its efforts to boost output by 14 percent this year.

Pertamina produced a total of 150,200 barrels of oil a day last year.