Five firms awarded Pertamina contracts

Five firms awarded Pertamina contracts

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil company Pertamina awarded
yesterday production sharing and technical assistance contracts
worth US$171.17 million to four foreign firms and one local
company.

The contracts consisted of three new production sharing deals,
one extension accord with Australia's Energy Equity Ltd., and one
technical assistance agreement with Indonesia's PT Radiant Energy
Sukatani.

The three new production sharing contracts were signed with BP
Asamera Oil Ltd. and Chevron Sulawesi Inc., both of the United
States, and Shell Exploration South Asia BV & Pecten Indonesia
Sebawang Ltd., a British-Dutch joint venture.

"The signing of these contracts shows that our investment climate
in the oil industry is still attractive," Minister of Mines and
Energy I.B. Sudjana said in his address at yesterday's signing
ceremony.

Sudjana said earlier this week that Pertamina and its
contractors should also explore oil and natural gas abroad as oil
exploration in Indonesia mostly focused on frontier areas.

Director General of Oil and Gas Suyitno Patmosukismo warned
that oil exploration investment overseas should not result in the
abandonment of exploration activities in Indonesia, since, he
said, the country still had a lot of undiscovered oil reserves.

Yesterday's contracts were signed by Faisal Abda'oe,
Pertamina's president, J.A. Fletcther of Shell, W.T. Hornaday of
Energy Equity, M.A. Martinez of Chevron, Faisal E. Yazid of
Radiant and B. Greenwood of Asamera.

The dollar figures in the contracts include exploration costs
and investment over the next 10 years, with Shell contributing
the largest, $95 million, followed by Energy Equity with $36
million, Chevron with $25 million, Radiant with $8.17 million and
Asamera with $7.02 million.

The five contracts will cover total exploration areas of
15,500 square kilometers, with Shell controlling 4,995 square
kilometers offshore East Kalimantan, Energy Equity 5,697 square
kilometers in Sengkang off South Sulawesi, Chevron 4,086 square
kilometers in Lariang off South Sulawesi, Radiant 16.01 square
kilometers in Sukatani off West Java and Asamera 542.2 square
kilometers in Calik of South Sumatra.

So far this year Pertamina has awarded a total of seven
production sharing contracts and five technical assistance
contracts, in addition to its basic agreement with Esso Natuna
Inc. on the development of the natural gas field in Natuna, Riau.

By comparison, Pertamina last year awarded only four contracts
for oil exploration. (rid)