Govt to offer 27 blocks next year

The government will offer 27 working areas in tenders next year, including 20 conventional oil and gas blocks, six shale gas blocks and one coal bed methane (CBM) block, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) said on Thursday

A Eddy Hermantoro, Director General of Oil and Gas at MEMR, said that as usual, the tender will be announced during the annual conference of the Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) in May, during which the government usually signs the contracts on the block from the previous tenders..

?We are looking for the right timing (for the tender) and are now preparing the data (on the blocks),? Eddy said after announcing the winners of the Phase II 2013 Regular Tender and the Phase I 2013 Direct Offer Tender.

Regarding the Phase II 2012 Regular Tender and the Phase I 2013 Tender Offer Tender, he said there are many companies who took tender documents but did not submit their bids. For instance, in the Phase I 2013 Direct Offer Tender, a total of 22 tender documents for 14 working areas were taken by interested companies, but only six documents on six working areas were returned to the ministry. Other companies did not return the tender documents probably because they had financial difficulties, considered the data was not complete, or other reasons.

He said based on discussion with IPA, the ministry concluded investment climate in Indonesia is still good enough.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon