Almost all oil and gas blocks put on direct offer tender attract bidders

Almost all the 15 oil and gas blocks currently auctioned under the direct offer tender have attracted bidders, a senior official of the Energy and Mineral Resources have said.

Of the 15 blocks, only one, that is Sermata block, failed to attract bidders.

Edy Hermantoro, the ministry's Director for Development of Upstream Operations, said in Jakarta on Monday that the bidders included foreign firms Marathon Oil, Esso, Black Gold Energy, Niko Resources, Total, Hess Corp., Lundin B.V, Orchard Energy, Australian Worldwide Exploration, Komodo Energy, Harvest Natural Resources and seven national oil companies.

The direct offer was closed on February 20, 2009.

Director General of Oil and Gas Evita Legowo said earlier that the announcement of the winners of the 15 working areas (see table) auctioned under direct offer mechanism would be announced no later than May, this year.

A number of major oil companies such as Total, Hess, Shell and Inpex take part in the tender, she said on March 2009.

Under the direct offer mechanism, investors are allowed to choose blocks they want to develop. Once they have made a choice, the government will advertise the chosen blocks to attract rival bids. If none is interested or rival bidders offer less attractive investment plan, the government will award the blocks to the investors that make the first bids.

The ministry still waited until April 14 to those interested in taking part in the regular tender, Edy added. (godang)

DIRECT OFFER
1	South Block "A"	Onshore/Offshore North Sumatra
2	East Pamai	Onshore Central Sumatra
3	Penyu	Offshore West Natuna
4	Sokang	Offshore East Natuna
5	Senami-Bahar	Onshore South Sumatra
6	West Belida	Onshore South Sumatra
7	Terumbu	Onshore/Offshore Madura
8	South East Madura	Onshore/Offshore East Java
9	Pasir	Onshore East Kalimantan
10	South Sesulu	Offshore East Kalimantan
11	Sermata	West Arafura sea
12	Kumawa	Offshore West Papua
13	Kofiau	Offshore Birds Head of West Papua
14	Cendrawasih	Offshore Cendrawasih bay, West Papua
15	Northern Papua	Onshore/Offshore North Papua