Govt to offer 20 new oil, gas working areas, seeking serious investors

By Bernard Loebs

Upstream Director at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas, Naryanto Wagimin said on Monday that the government plans to offer 20 new oil and gas working areas to investors over the next five years.

Naryanto acknowledged that the number of exploration working areas being offered, starting this year, is relatively smaller compared to the offers made in the past. But he said that this was in line with suggestion from the Vice Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Susilo Siswoutomo that the government should focus more on getting serious quality investors rather than quantity.

?No need to be plenty (of working areas put on tender), most important is to get serious investors,? Naryanto said.

Indeed, of the seven oil and gas exploration blocks put at the second stage regular tender last year, there were only three blocks tnat gained investors interest. He declined to disclose the reasons. ?I have yet to receive full report from the tender team. I don?t dare to speculate.?

Elsewhere, Naryanto said investors currently are more interested in carrying out joint studies to find new oil and gas reserves.

He said that in the near future, the government will announce 14 new oil and gas working areas. ?All resulted from joint studies,? he said. ?We have checked this out, all are serious investors.?

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak