Indonesia's state oil and gas firm Pertamina has targeted to boost crude oil production to 170,318 barrels per day from 141,839 barrels last year by accelerating the activation of new oil wells, an executive said in Jakarta Thursday.

The company also targeted to increase gas production to 1.5 million cubic feet per day from last year's 1.09 million cubic feet, said Pertamina's head of exploration division Bambang Tjiptadi.

The target should be achieved by 2008, he said.

In a bid to achieve the target, the company plans to expand exploration to other countries such as Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia,and Brunei Darussalam, Bambang said.

The exploration of four new oil and gas wells will begin next year, Bambang said, adding that each well costs the company about 1 million US dollars. "The estimated oil and gas reserves in those four wells have not been known yet," he said.

This year, Pertamina began to explore four oil and gas wells in East Java and on Sumatra island, he said.

Source: Xinhua