Govt warns ExxonMobil to surrender Natuna data

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro called on American energy giant ExxonMobil Corp to surrender exploration data on the Natuna D-Alpha block in South China Sea, citing the expiry of its contract.

?To all contract cooperation contractors, I, on behalf of the mining authority, emphasize that under the oil and gas law, all exploration and exploitation data belong to the government. Any contractors that fail to surrender the data will face criminal charges and may be jailed one year and pay a fine of Rp 10 billion (US$=11,200) at the maximum,? Purnomo told reporters on Friday.

The statement came in response to the complaint by state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina that ExxonMobil still refuses to hand over the data on the block despite the government?s decision to transfer the block to the state owned firm. The government said the ExxonMobil contract has expired, while the firm said the contract was still valid.

Since ExxonMobil keeps holding the data, Pertamina says it is facing difficulties to find partners to develop the gas-rich block.

According to Purnomo, four wells have been drilled in the block with the last one drilled in 1994.

Purnomo said the government had no plans to seek arbitration proceedings against ExxonMobil in order to gain the exploration data, citing that the ExxonMobil contract had automatically expired. (Godang)