Pertamina Appoints Muhammad Husein As Acting Chief Executive

Jakarta, Oct 1 (Antara) - The Board of Commissioners of PT Pertamina has appointed Pertamina`s Upstream Director Muhammad Husein as the acting President-Director and Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned oil and natural gas mining company on Wednesday. "The Board of Commissioners has appointed Muhammad Husein as the acting Chief Executive of Pertamina until the appointment of a definitive chief executive through the general meeting of shareholders," Vice-President of Corporate Communication of Pertamina Ali Mudakir said after the general meeting at the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise Building here Wednesday. Husein`s appointment came after the Board of Commissioners could not propose a name for the definitive officer as the replacement for Karen Agustiawan, who resigned from the chief executive`s post in August. Though Husein is an acting chief executive, he will still continue to perform his duties as the upstream director. The appointment of a definitive officer is the responsibility of the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, a shareholder, Mudakir said. The board has not mentioned any specific reason for the appointment of Husein. However, Mudakir said that more than 60 percent of Pertamina`s profit came from upstream business activities. Husein, according to Pertamina`s official website, majored in geology and graduated from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1984 and got his master`s degree in Science from the University of London in 1989. He started his career in the oil and gas industry in 1984 as a geologist in the Exploration Division of Lemigas, an oil and gas research and development center of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. He then chaired the Remote Sensing and GIS Studies Group and the Exploration Technical Service Unit of Lemigas. Husein was appointed as the Head of the Exploration Division of Lemigas during 2001-2005. He had also become an Assistant Deputy of Oil at the Deputy of Energy and Mineral Resources and Forestry of the Coordinating Ministry of Economy. Before his appointment as the upstream director of Pertamina on May 30, 2011, Husein served as the commissioner of PT Pertamina EP since July 1, 2009.