No request to open data room for Andaman III block: Official

By Godang Sitompul

An official at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas said that there has been no request from Canadian oil and gas firm Talisman Energy to open the data room for the Andaman III block, offshore North Sumatera in northern part of Sumatra.

Yunan Muzafar, a senior official at the Directorate?s upstream business management, said that Talisman has yet to carry out seismic survey and drilling activities at the Andaman III block because of obstacles created by the Law on Aceh Government. He did not elaborate.

?So, there?s no (request to) disclose the data,? Yunan told Petromindo.com on Thursday.

This portal, quoting a source, earlier reported that Talisman has requested to open the data room on Andaman III block as it wants to seek partners to develop the block. The company is willing to divest more than 49 percent interest in the block.

Talisman was awarded the production sharing contract for the Andaman III block in 2009, holding 100 percent interest. The Andaman III block covers an area of 8,440 square kilometres and is situated in water depths of 1,300 metres.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak