Japan, China interested to buy gas from Natuna D Alpha: Purnomo

A number of potential buyers including those from China nad Japan have expressed interest to buy future gas production from giant field Natuna D Alpha, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.

While waiting for Pertamina?s proposal to develop the field, we have been conducting approaches to potential buyers and it turned out Indonesian traditional buyers in Japan and China have expressed interest,? Purnomo told reporters over the week-end.

A number of potential offtaker such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand have reportedly also expressed interest to buy gas from the block.

The government have decided to annul Exxon Mobil?s operatorship in the giant block over failure to timely develop the block and planned to turn it over to state oil and gas company PT. Pertamina. Pertamina, however, is required by the government to submit proposal on how to develop the block. The proposal would be presented to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Purnomo said that thus far, the government has not received the proposal.

Pertamina Deputy CEO Iin Arifin Takhyan said last week that Pertamina will soon conduct beauty contest to find partner(s) to develop the block. A number of international EP company including Royal Dutch/Shell, Petronas, StatOil, Total EP

Purnomo said that Pertamina estimated that some US40 billion of investment would be required to develop the block.

The block has around 222 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves, of which about 46 TCF is thought to be commercially recoverable. The gas has high corbondioxide content ? something that makes the project needs sophisticated technology and huge investment to develop. (godang)