ConocoPhillips farming out 49% of Arafura Sea PSC

Houston, Texas-based oil firm ConocoPhillips has reached deal to farm out a 24 percent interest in newly-awarded Arafura Sea block, an offshore block in Maluku, to Overseas Petroleum and Investment Corp. (OPIC), an industry source said.

OPIC is an overseas unit of Taiwan's CPC Corp.

Conoco plans to farm out a total of 49 percent interest in the wholly-owned block. It is still in talks with four other oil, gas firms including CNOOC, INPEX and OPIC for the farmout of the remaining 25 percent, the source said.

Arafura Sea block is awarded to ConocoPhillips by the Indonesian government at October 17, 2008 through direct-offer mechanism

Deputy chairman in charge of Planning at upstream oil, gas regulatory body BPMIGAS Achmad Luthfi told Petromindo.Com that the agency was not aware of the farmout.

?BPMIGAS has yet to be notified about the transfer of stake,? he said.

Meanwhile, CPC Corp. is reportedly also awaiting approval from the government for the acquisition of a 20 perent stake in an offshore block in Kalimantan operated by Italian oil firm Eni SpA.

The report by Dow Jones Newswire however did not mention the name of the block.

According to Petromindo.com data, Eni has two blocks offshore East Kalimantan, that is Ambalat PSC and nearby Bukat PSC. Ambalat, offshore Ambalat Island, has been claimed by Malaysia as part of its territory, causing a dispute that remains unsolved. (godang).