Government to offer 50 oil and gas blocks in five years

The ministry of energy and mineral resources will formulate a master plan, which will enable it to offer at least 50 oil, and gas blocks to investors in five years, Bisnis Indonesia daily reported on Monday.

The director general of oil and gas, Novian Moezhar Thaib, unveiled in Jakarta over the weekend that the master plan would be formulated in cooperation with BP Migas, Pertamina, universities and surveying company.

“We hope the master plan could be completed in 2005,” he said.

Novian said that the master plan would also include the government’s general investment policy in the oil and gas sector such as incentives to be given to investors operating in frontier areas.

According to him, investors operating in less developed areas such as those in eastern Indonesia will be given a higher production split. Under the existing production sharing contracts, most of oil producers receive 15 percent of the production, while the government gets another 85 percent. (*)