East Natuna PSC to be signed Wednesday: Minister
Tuesday, October 4 2016 - 01:23 AM WIB
A consortium comprising PT Pertamina (Persero), Exxon Mobil and PTT Thailand is finally set to sign the production sharing contract for the East Natuna block, in Riau Islands Province, on Wednesday, according to Interim Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Luhut Panjaitan.
?We?ve just had a meeting on East Natuna at the office. Wednesday afternoon, it (the contract) will be signed,? he told reporters Monday.
He said that the signing of the contract will provide certainty for the project considering it has long been delayed. ?The project has been moving back and forth since 2011, it (contract signing) had been postponed several times. It was going (to be delayed again) into 2018. I said: No, tomorrow on Wednesday it must be concluded what will be the next step.?
A report quoting ministry?s Director for Upstream Development Tunggal said earlier that the East Natuna consortium has postponed the signing of the production sharing contract for the block from the initial plan of September as they want for more time to make further assessment of the block?s reserves. The report also said that ExxonMobil wants to first complete the technology market review in 2017.
The East Natuna block, formerly called D-Alpha, is estimated to hold up to 200 tcf of gas reserve, the largest gas reserve ever found in Indonesia. However, only 46 tcf of the gas is said to be recoverable due the high CO2 element contained in the reserve.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak