Australia, Indonesia sign geoscientific accord

Australia, Indonesia sign geoscientific accord

SYDNEY (Kyodo): Australia has signed a geoscientific research agreement with Indonesia, which will boost petroleum exploration in Indonesia, Minister of Resources David Beddall said yesterday.

The program will improve knowledge of the regional geology and petroleum resources potential of selected areas of Australia and Indonesia, including the Zone of Cooperation in the Timor Sea.

"This type of collaboration shows the breadth of cooperative activity between both countries, which is supported by a very strong and stable government-to-government relationship," he said.

"The survey program will involve gathering, evaluating and analyzing new regional, geological, geophysical and geochemical data in mutually defined areas," he said.

Over the next five years, cooperative, scientific and technical surveys will be conducted by the Australian Geographical Survey Organization (AGSO) and Indonesia's state- owned petroleum company Pertamina.

The program will also provide training for Pertamina staff in applying modern geoscientific technology and petroleum basin analyses.

In a recent overseas contract, AGSO collected new seismic data from sedimentary basins along 2,500 kilometers in the Philippines.

The three-year project resulted in the discovery of eight new oil and gas leads and helped rekindle petroleum exploration industry interests in the region.