Kondur denies charge that it has signed contract "quietly"

Pertamina?s production sharing contractor Kondur Petroleum SA rejected the accusation made by the people grouped in the Riau-based United Merbau People (MMB) organization that the oil company had signed the extension of the its contract to operate a concession area in the Malacca Strait quietly, Riau Post reported on Monday.

In a press release made available to the press in Pekanbaru, the company said that the extension of the Malacca Strait PSC had been informed to the local authority both in regency and provincial levels along before the contract extension was signed in 2001.

The company also said that the 30-year contract terminated in August 2000 not in 2005 as reported by the organization. According to the company the application for the extension of the contract was prepared in 1995 and was formally submitted to Pertamina in August 1996.

"Pertamina fulfilled the request for the extension of the contract. The new contract which will valid from August 2000 to August 2020 was signed by Pertamina and Kondur in December, 1997," he said.

A group of people from Merbau associated in the MMB recently went to the legislative council of the Bengkalis regency demanding the local government to end the contract awarded to Kondur Petroleum to operate the Malacca Strait oil block.

Kondur Petroleum which is run by Bakrie Family has 35 percent working interest in the block while CNOOC, Reliance Universal and Malacca Petroleum has 33 percent, 25 percent and 7 percent respectively. The oil block produces about 10,000 barrels of oil per day. (*)