12 oil contracts awarded to local and foreign firms
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina signed yesterday eight production-sharing contracts and four technical assistance contracts for oil and gas exploration and production with local and foreign companies.
The company's junior director of exploration and production F.X. Sujanto said at the signing ceremony that the contractors were committed to spending US$634.3 million on exploration in the first ten years of their contracts.
"The government will continue to provide incentives to encourage oil and gas exploration, particularly in eastern Indonesia," said Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana at the ceremony.
Sudjana said there were still many sites in the eastern region that could be exploited. "Several blocks off Timor, for example, are now ready to be tendered to local and foreign companies," he said.
The 30-year production-sharing contracts were awarded to two Japanese companies -- Japan Petroleum Exploration Co and Indonesia Petroleum Exploration --, GFB Resources Indonesia of Canada, U.S. Apache Co, Australia's City View Co, New Zealand's Cue Energy Resources and France's Total, which got two contracts.
GFB Resources Indonesia, a wholly-owned unit of Canada's Carmanah Resources Ltd, will invest $96 million exploring an offshore block off the Northeast Natuna islands in the South China Sea.
Indonesia Petroleum will spend $96 million to explore Rabe block off East Kalimantan, while the other Japanese firm -- Japan Petroleum -- will invest $157 million in Sabo block, off south Timor.
Apache will invest $19.7 million to explore an onshore block at Korinci-Baru in Riau.
City View, through its subsidiary Western Madura Ltd, will explore in Madura, East Java, with an investment of $63 million.
Cue Energy Resources, which set up a joint venture with PT Wirabuana Petrolindo Ltd of Indonesia, will spend $129.6 million exploring offshore at Tanjung Jabung in southern Sumatra.
Total will spend about $50 million exploring Sebawang block II, offshore East Kalimantan, and in the nearby block of Saliki.
The 20-year technical assistance contracts were awarded to PT Putra Batumandi Petroleum; Western Akar Petroleum Ltd; a joint venture between PT Insani Bina Perkasa and PT Mitrasani Lestari Nusa; and a joint venture between PT Indama Putera Langsa and GFB Resources Ltd.
They will explore respectively an onshore Batumandi block, North Sumatra; Tuba Obi Timur block in Jambi, Sungai Gelam block in Jambi and in Langsa an offshore block in East Aceh, northern Sumatra. (bnt)
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