Chance slimmer for Pertamina to acquire Repsol-YPF assets

State oil and gas company Pertamina said its chance of acquiring the Indonesian assets of Spanish Argentinean oil and gas firm Repsol ?YPF had turned slimmer after South Korean oil and gas firm Korean National Oil Company (KNOC) offered a higher bidding price.

Pertamina?s upstream director Gatot K. Wiroyodo said Pertamina had thus far no plans to increase its bidding price to compete with KNOC.

?We think the acquisition will be no longer economic for us, if we increase the bidding price,? Gatot told reporters Thursday during a workshop in Anyer, Banten.

He refused to specify the price offered by Pertamina for the Repsol-YPF assets.

Repsol ?YPF has named Pertamina as the preferred bidder in the international tender which also involved Japanese firm Mitsui, Thai firm Thailand Petroleum Authority (PTT) and local firm Medco Energy Corporation.

The Spanish-Argentinean firm has also asked Pertamina to review its bidding price to make it competitive with the one offered by KNOC.

According to Gatot, Repsol ?YPF will announce the final result of the bidding early next month.

Repsol-YPF wanted to sell all its Indonesian assets following its plant to focus its operation in North Africa and South America.

The company owns a 65 percent stake in the South East Sumatra block, which is the country?s largest offshore oil producing block; 36.7 percent in the North West Java producing block; 25 percent in the West Madura producing block; 50 percent in the Poleng producing block.

It also has stake in several exploration blocks, including the Jambi Merang block (25 percent) , the Blora block (16.7 percent), the South Sokang block (45 percent).

The company currently produces about 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD). (Alex/Godang)