Four oil, gas blocks to be re-offered to investors

The government will re-offer to investors four oil and gas blocks to be returned to the state by its current operators, Bisnis Indonesia reported Friday.

The paper said that the four oil and gas blocks are the West Aru I and West Aru II PSCs in Arafura Sea, West Papua, SouthWest Bird?s Head PSC in West Papua, and Southeast Mahakam PSC in East Kalimantan.

Head of Public Relations at the upstream oil and gas authority SKK Migas, Rudianto Rimbono confirmed that the four blocks are in the process of being relinquished by their operators. He added that in accordance with the existing regulation, once returned back to the stage, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources will offer the blocks to other investors via tender.

This portal reported in July of last year that PT Total E&P Indonesie has decided to return the South West Bird?s Head Block and Southeast Mahakam Block as it failed to make commercial hydrocarbon findings. The company holds a 90 percent interest in the South West Bird?s Head Block, with the remaining 10 percent held by PT Indika Energy. At the Southeast Mahakam Block, Total holds a 50 percent interest, with the balance held by Inpex.

Meanwhile, British energy giant BP Plc said last month it would relinquish the West Aru I and West Aru II PSCs in this first quarter of 2015, as a 3D seismic evaluation result suggested that the two blocks are both technically highly risky and commercially very challenging. (*)