Indonesia gives exploration rights on 22 oil fields

www.chinaview.cn  2008-10-17  

JAKARTA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has awarded rights for exploration on 22 oil-and-gas blocks to energy companies, including ConocoPhilips, Chevron and Husky Energy, a director at the energy ministry said here Friday. 

"It has been awarded 22 blocks to foreign and local companies," Evita Legowo, director at the ministry told Xinhua on telephone. 

The director said that a U.S. unit Chevron got a right to look for oil on onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks of West Papua I and West Papua II. 

ConocoPhilips was awarded offshore oil and gas block in ArafuraSea in Maluku province, and Husky Energy Inc got a right to offshore North Sumbawa II oil-and-gas block, in Nusatenggara province, said Evita. 

The director said that the total commitment of investment on the first three years of exploration was 375.5 million U.S. dollars. "In the first three years the companies must do activities (exploration), should they fail, it could be extended to another 6-year," she said. 

The government also gave the right to a consortium of Marathon Indonesia, a unit of Marathon Oil Corp, and Kanzai Oil on onshore and offshore block in Sulawesi. 

The rest of the fields were awarded to local and other foreign companies, she said. The country has also provided financial incentive in exploration to boost production. 

The growing population and economic activity in Indonesia, which leads to the rise of oil consumption, had made the country become a net oil importer since 2003, as it failed to find new blocks amid the aging wells which causes declining in production, according to Indonesian Minister of Mines and Energy Purnomo Yusgiantoro. 

Indonesia oil production has decreased to less than one million barrel per day since February.