He relates that he had to go to the US to get a rig. By 1981 Panigoro had already won contracts worth 20 billion rupiah. His big break was in September 1982, when his group Meta Epsi won a tender for a Pertamina project to install gas pipes. Then, working with a foreign partner, Fluor, they built the Pertamina refinery in Cilacap. Medco churns out almost 70,000 barrels of oil every day and with reserves of 300 million barrels, still needs to find new reserves of some 24 million barrels a year to maintain this level of production.
Debt is another matter.
So much for Panigoro, proven businessman and master of charting a course through the political waters of the Soeharto era. His success, of course, would have had a lot to do with political favors, as with so many others. This is the prime reason why he is not accepted by the public as being able to play a leader's part in bringing real democracy to Indonesia. But still he wants to command contemporary politics as much he can. In June last year there were strong rumors of a secret meeting at Panigoro's house to form a plan to topple the Wahid government by mobilizing the masses.