Director general confirms Petronas? interest in East Natuna gas reserves
Wednesday, November 14 2001 - 07:59 AM WIB
?Petronas? intention refers to the plan of building ASEAN gas grid,? Sudibyo told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on ?Oil and Gas Industry in the Regional Autonomy Era?, which was jointly organized by Petromindo.com and BIKAP PR.
On Tuesday, the president director of state oil and gas company Pertamina, Baihaki Hakim said Petronas had expressed its interest in East Natuna gas reserves during the recent ASEAN Council on Petroleum?s (ASCOPE) Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The gas reserve which had attracted Petronas is located on a site called D Alpha block, also known as Block A, east of the Natuna. It is expected to become the backbone for future ASEAN gas grid.
The D Alpha block is considered one of the world?s largest gas fields with estimated gas reserves of 222 trillion standard cubic feet, including 46 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. ExxonMobil Corp., through its subsidiaries Exxon Natuna Inc. and Mobil Natuna Inc., holds 76 percent working interest in D-Alpha, while Pertamina holds the rest.
Malaysia has long been campaigning for the development of a gas grid linking the ten South East Asian nations grouped in ASEAN. The project is still on track despite the global economic slowdown, according to Mohd Farid Mohd Amin, chief coordinator of the trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline task force.
Sudibyo also said on Wednesday ExxonMobil had yet to submit to the government, through Pertamina, an application for extending its contract of the East Natuna gas project.
Aside from Malaysia, Thailand is also interested in the East Natuna project.
Meanwhile, Petronas and Pertamina are negotiating to deliver 100 million standard cubic feet per day of gas from West Natuna to peninsular Malaysia for ten years, starting 2004. (godang)