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)