Ministry ?unveiling? content of Pertamina?s proposal for Mahakam
Saturday, March 7 2015 - 03:58 AM WIB
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is studying the proposal of state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina (Persero) for the development of Mahakam block in East Kalimantan, promising to make a decision this month.
"The proposal was received by the minister (Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said) on Feb. 23. The core content of the proposal is that Pertamina says it is ready to manage the Mahakam block," said Head of Performance Control Unit at the ministry Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja, on Friday.
He could not provide more details on the content of the proposal, while saying the government expected to make a decision this month.
"Hopefully, the decision can be issued in this March," he said.
Widyawan said basically, the government is willing to give a majority stake in the gas-rich block to Pertamina after the contract on the block now held by French firm Total EP Indonesie and Japanese firm Inpex Corp. expires in 2017.
"Indeed, Total has proposed an option of five-year transition period for the block, but I do not know if there are specific rules regarding the transition period," he said.
According to Widhyawan, Pertamina and Total should discuss whether the current employees of Total may continue working for the block once it has been taken over by the state firm.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon