Eight companies bid for Wailawi gas field

Eight companies including locally owned company Perusda Benoa Taka will take part in the bidding for the development of the Wailawi gas field which is set to be opened in Jakarta today, as reported in Kaltim post Wednesday edition.

The Wailawi gas field, formerly owned and operated by Vico Indonesia, is located in the North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan. The gas field is one of the two gas fields to be offered in the auction. The other gas field is the Mountain Front Kuantan field in Central Sumatra which was formerly operated PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia.

Deputy regent of the North Penajam regency, Ichwan Datu Adam, said that if Perusda Benoa -- which is owned by the local regency government -- won the Wailawi gas field, it would cooperate with an experienced gas company to operate the gas field.

Pertamina took over the operation of the Wailawi gas field from Vico Indonesia recently after Vico's contract to operate the gas field expired. Pertamina then decided to offer the gas field to other companies in a bid to maximize the gas production from the gas field, which is expected to be able to produce for another eight years with a production capacity of "hundreds of millions cubic feet per day." (*)