Aussie minor oil firm enters Indonesian coal business

Small Australian oil firm Lion Energy Limited is stepping its feet to Indonesian coal business by entering into an arrangement with an Indonesian company to fund the working capital requirements of a coal project which has supply contract to National Power Corporation (Napocor), the Philippine government-owned power company, the company said in a statement released Tuesday.

Lion did not give detail of the project.

Lion said that the contract with Napocor is 70,000 MT, to be delivered within 12 months in six shipments, with the first shipment has already been shipped recently.

The company also said it was to begin exploratory investigation of a coal contract area in Papua in a view to possible participation as joint venture partner in the concession with the concession holder, an Indonesian company owned by Japanese interest. The coal reserves, claimed Lion, were mapped by the Japanese during World War II.

Lion currently has 2.5 percent working interest in Seram PSC in Maluku with oil production of around 10,000 BPD. The company is also in the process of disposing its 100 percent interest in Bula PSC, also in Seram, a small oilfield with production less than 1,000 BPD. (alex)