Medco gets offer from foreign firms to jointly manage Donggi block

Publicly-listed PT Medco Energi International Tbk has received several offers from foreign oil and gas companies to jointly develop PT Pertamina’s Donggi oil and gas block in Central Sulawesi, the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported in its Friday edition.

Medco’s chief executive officer Hilmi Panigoro said that his company has already received several offers from foreign companies -- including Total, Shell, Chevron Texaco, PTT (Thailand’s oil and gas company), Marathon and Mitsui -- to work together.

“All these companies, which want to become a partner of Medco to acquire Donggi, are foreign companies,” Hilmi told journalists on Thursday in Jakarta.

State-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, according to Hilmi, has opened the doors for Medco to become a partner. A team from Medco is negotiating with Pertamina’s team.

“I am always open for partnership with foreign oil and gas companies. In my view, it would be better if we get more partners to operate such a huge block like Donggi,” Hilmi said.

Meanwhile, Pertamina president Ariffi Nawawi welcomed the Medco offer and said Pertamina is always open to work together with Medco in case of Donggi.

“But we have already informed the team of Medco that they should have purchasers of gas before taking over Donggi,” Ariffi said. (*)