Santos signs gas MOU with KL

Santos signs gas MOU with KL

JAKARTA: Australian oil and gas company Santos Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) and Indonesia's Pertamina.

Sidick A. Nitikusuma, the spokesman for the country's oil and gas upstream authority, Balak, confirmed the memorandum.

He said the MOU was signed last Thursday at the Tampak Siring presidential palace in Gianyar, Bali, on the sidelines of a ceremony officially marking the first delivery of natural gas from Indonesia to Malaysia.

Santos, Pertamina and Petronas are negotiating a 20-year contract to supply gas from onshore gas fields in southern Sumatra in Indonesia to Malaysia.

The gas fields include the Bentu production-sharing contract operated by Santos.

The financial details of the MOU were not disclosed, but Santos managing director John Ellice-Flint told Dow Jones on Monday that under the existing agreement, which is expected to be formalized by the end of this year, gas supplies were scheduled to begin early 2005. -- JP