State-owned energy firm Pertamina plans to expand its presence in Algeria by penetrating deeper into that country's oil and gas sector, officially amending on Thursday its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach.

The MoU was originally signed in September 2016.

Through the amended MoU, Pertamina claims it will be able to develop new oil assets in Algeria with total reserves of 100 million barrels of oil and an estimated production rate of 20,000 to 30,000 barrels per day.

Pertamina and Sonatrach will soon finalize their deal and settle several commercial terms before submitting a plan of development (POD) to the Algerian oil and gas authority.

“This move reflects Pertamina’s seriousness in expanding its upstream business operations overseas in an effort to increase Indonesia’s oil and gas production and reserves,” Pertamina president director Elia Massa Manik said in a statement on Thursday.

He added that the two companies were also considering teaming up in the business of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Pertamina, through its subsidiary Pertamina Internasional EP (PIEP), currently has participating interests in three Algerian oil and gas fields, with 65 percent interest in the MLN field, 16.9 percent interest in the EMK field and 3.73 percent in the OHD field.

In the first half of 2017, Pertamina’s overseas oil and gas production grew by almost 30 percent annually to 152,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.