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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 22:10 GMT | more >>

Jakarta hands out exploration spoils



By Upstream staff 

Indonesia signed new oil and gas exploration contracts with several companies today, including Italy's Eni, China National Offshore Exploration Company (CNOOC) and Malaysia's Petronas, a senior energy ministry official said.

Jakarta has been offering exploration rights to try to stem a steady decline in oil production as the country has failed to tap new oilfields fast enough.

Sutisna Prawira, the head of the legal unit at the ministry, said Eni, Italy's biggest oil and gas group, will explore the West Timor block in the Timor Sea.

A consortium of CNOOC and Petronas will explore the offshore South-East Palung Aru block in Arafura Sea while Malaysia’s Genting Oil & Gas will explore the onshore Kasuri block in West Papua.

The country also signed an exploration contract with Lundin Oil & Gas for the onshore Rangkas block in West Java.

Indonesia produced 859,000 barrels per day of crude in April, unchanged from March. It has said it has about 8.6 billion barrels of proven and potential oil reserves and 182 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The country also signed a coalbed methane contract with a consortium led by Medco Energi for an area in South Sumatra, but officials did not give further details, Reuters reported.


Tuesday, 27 May, 2008, 04:25 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 27 May, 2008, 06:48 GMT

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