Cott backs down from SE Papua oil, gas investment plan

By Romel S. Gurky

ASX-listed Cott Oil and Gas Limited announced Thursday it has decided not to participate in an application for a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) over a Joint Study Area in Southeast Papua.

?The decision was taken in order to focus expenditure on development of the Pandora gas field and on Cott?s exploration acreage within Papua New Guinea,? the company said in a statement.

Cott was part of a consortium, which previously conducted a study on an oil and gas potential in South East Papua. Cott announced in March 2013 that the consortium, led by Transform Exploration (which has a 75 percent stake in the group, with the remaining 25 percent held by Cott), had completed the study, and expected the Indonesian government to hold the bidding round for the PSC in the first quarter of this year. In May 2014, the company said it was still awaiting notification from the Indonesian government regarding the PSC and award process for the oil and gas exploration block.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak