Australia, Indonesia boost R&D ties in metals, energy

Key Australian and Indonesian science agencies signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to strengthen cooperation in research and development in their mineral and exploration sectors Dow Jones reported.

The agencies are Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and Indonesia's Research and Development Agency for Energy and Mineral Resources.

Paul Wellings, deputy chief executive of Csiro, said the agreement will expand his group's R&D collaboration with Indonesia from the mining sector into the energy sector.

"This MOU will establish further links between two of the region's key resources research agencies," he was quoted by Dow Jones as saying.

"Each country will pursue the transfer of related scientific knowledge and technologies to practical applications for private industry and government agencies," he added.

An inaugural project under the agreement will be a multidiscipline, high-resolution study of sedimentary formations under northeast Java, he said.

Northeast Java is an area of increasing importance with a number of recent oil and gas discoveries, including a huge multibillion barrel oil discovery by Exxon Mobil Corp. on acreage acquired when Mobil bought Australian exploration concern Ampolex, he said.

An Indonesian delegation was in Sydney to sign the MOU Tuesday. (*)