Funders need assurances on Natuna cash

Alfian, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta  |  Thu, 02/19/2009 2:11 PM  

To attract funding, the Natuna D-Alpha gas project may need a trust to manage and distribute project revenues, ensuring returns to investors. 

Upstream Oil and Gas Regulator BPMigas chairman R. Priyono said Wednesday the establishment of the body, something like a board of trustees, could help the company win investors' trust to invest in the massive and costly project. 

"The body will be a sort of a referee. The project revenue will be put to the trust first and the board will distribute it afterwards," Priyono said. 

"This will convince investors that their investments will be safe and that they will receive timely returns properly." 

The Natuna D-Alpha block is estimated to hold 46 trillion cubic feet of gas, one of the biggest reserves in Asia, with state oil and gas company PT Pertamina taking the lead in its development. 

However, the block development requires both large-scale capital and advanced technology as the field contains a high degree of CO2. 

Priyono said Pertamina would need around US$40 billion to develop the block. 

"It seems that Pertamina will try to get this amount of money from international money markets and the market will normally want to be involved if this kind of trust exists as part of the project," Priyono said. 

Priyono said the trustee board could be handled by a donor agency like the World Bank. He added a similar trust exists in the development of the LNG Tangguh project in Papua with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as trustee. 

Pertamina's president director Karen Agustiawan said she had not heard as yet of the need for such a trust board. 

According to Priyono, Pertamina had not yet requested the setting up of such a trustee board, but this would likely be discussed in the project's terms and conditions to be formulated jointly by the government, BPMigas, and Pertamina. 

The Natuna block's majority share was initially controlled by US-based oil giant ExxonMobil, which had a total interest of 76 percent, while Pertamina had only 26 percent. 

In 2005, the government terminated Exxon's right to develop Natuna, saying that the project's plan of development (POD) was completed without incorporating a feasibility study. 

In June 2008, the government then appointed Pertamina to develop the block, with the company now holding 40 percent of the block.

Pertamina is however required to find partners due to the huge size of the required investment. 

It so far has shortlisted potential partners, which include ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp, Eni SPA, StatoilHydri ASA, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), and Malaysia's Petronas. 

Pertamina said it would select more than one partner so the company will remain the majority stake holder in the block. 

Priyono said Pertamina might also receive several incentives to develop the block, although the details would be discussed later.