Govt awards 15 oil and gas contracts

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources awarded on Monday 15 new contracts to a number of oil and gas companies and consortiums, including energy giants BP, Eni and Statoil, to explore and develop oil and gas resources in various locations of the country.

The ministry said in a statement the contracts were signed in a ceremony witnessed by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik.

Of the 15 contracts, two were offered in the Phase II of 2010 Regular Tender and nine in the Phase I of 2011 Direct Offer Tender. The government announced the winners of the tenders months ago, but only signed the contracts on Monday. The remaining four contracts were offered in the Phase I of 2011 Regular Tender. The winners of this tender were unveiled on Sunday, the time the contracts were signed.

Among the contract recipients are BP which through subsidiary BP Exploration Indonesia Limited received West Aru I and West Aru II PSCs. The concessions were part of those offered in the 2011 Phase I Regular Tender. Eni, through Eni Arguni Limited, got the contract on Arguni I PSC.

Meanwhile, Niko Resources in a partnership with among others Statoil signed three contracts on North Ganal PSC, Obi PSC and Halmahera II PSC.

The ministry said in a statement that the oil and companies and consortiums were committed to spending a total of US$265.8 million for exploration over a period of three years and would immediately pay a total of $55.43 million in signature bonus to the government.

The ministry said the signing of the 15 new contracts brought the number of oil and gas contracts signed this year to 16.

During the occasion, the minister also witnessed the signing of a Heads of Agreement (HoA) by ConocoPhillips (Grissik) Ltd and PT Pertamina EP to unitize their respective operations at Suban field. ConocoPhilips started production at Suban in 2002. The firm later found out that the field?s hydrocarbon resources coverage areas include Pertamina?s adjacent concession. As the result of the unitization the field is expected to increase its gas production by 13,000 BOEPD. (godang)

No.	Block	Contractor (s)	Commitment in three years
			Commitment		Budget (US$ million )
1.	Offshore Timor Sea I	Hess (Indonesia-V) Limited	Signature Bonus		1.1
			G & G Study		0.3
			Exploration Well
			Seismic survey 2D (km)	1,500	2.0
			Seismic survey 3D
			Total		2.3
2.	Halmahera II	Konsorsium Niko Resources (Overseas I) Limited - Statoil Asa	Signature Bonus		2.0
			G & G Study		1.0
			Exploration Well
			Seismic survey 2D (km)	6,000	9.0
			Seismic survey 3D
			Total		10
3.	West Aru I	BP Exploration Indonesia Limited	Signature Bonus		1.25
			G & G Study		1.0
			Exploration Well
			Seismic survey 2D (km)	2,000	0.2
			Seismic survey 3D	1,000	10
			Total		11.2
4.	West Aru II	BP Exploration Indonesia Limited	Signature Bonus		15
			G & G Study		1.0
			Exploration Well
			Seismic survey 2D (km)
			Seismic survey 3D	4,000	40
			Total		41