Government to repeat tender of oil, gas blocks

The government will repeat tender of oil and gas blocks offered last year which have failed to gain interest from investors, Bisnis Indonesia.

This was said by Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arcandra Tahar. He added that oil and gas blocks which been returned by the operators will also be offered in the upcoming tender, but did not say when the tender will be held. ?All blocks returned (to the government) will be put on tender,? he said.

The ministry last year offered 14 conventional blocks, seven of which were tendered through direct offer and the rest through regular bidding. Also offered were two CBM blocks and one shale block. Only a few of the blocks offered managed to gain interest from investors, but only one was finally taken up.

The ministry has recently revised a new gross split policy first introduced earlier this year, promising new incentives, in a bid to attract fresh investment into the country?s upstream oil and gas sector. (*)