Success Story of the Indonesian Mining King Arifin Panigo
Maybe you are a bit foreign when you hear this one businessman but another for successful entrepreneurs in Indonesia, especially the Oil and Gas sector. The name Arifin Panigoro is Indonesia’s first son who successfully owned a petroleum company in Indonesia.
Arifin Panigoro is a graduate from Electrical ITB, he began his career as an electrical installer from house to house during his college days. Next, he opened the Pertamina pipeline installation service.
But soon after he ventured to install a large pipe and work with foreign parties, where the results of this cooperation can be bought heavy equipment and finally formed a company owned by Arifin Panigoro, which was named Meta Epsi Drilling Company (Medco).
Thanks to Arifin’s hard work, Medco finally was able to buy shares in PT. Stanvac Indonesia which is the oldest oil well in Indonesia, now its name has changed to Expat.
From there Arifin still does not want to give up on how to have a locally owned company that is able to process natural gas and also create geothermal power plants sourced from geothermal energy. Arifin’s PLTP is located in North Sumatra.
Until finally until now PT. Medco Energi International can compete with foreign companies and prove that businesses in the mining sector are capable of being controlled by local residents.
Citing data from Forbes Magazine, Arifin Panigoro’s name was included in the ranks of the 50 richest people in Indonesia. In 2015, the man born in Bandung on March 14, 1945, pocketed USD $ 450 million in assets, equivalent to Rp. 5.96 trillion (exchange rate of Rp. 13,250 per US dollar).
This source of wealth from the electrical engineering alumni of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) comes from its oil and gas company, Medco. But not only in the oil and gas sector, but Arifin through Medco Group also runs businesses in the fields of electricity, plantations, agriculture to hospitality.