Pertamina has shortlisted partners in Natuna D Alpha to four: House
Wednesday, February 11 2009 - 12:54 AM WIB
Tjatur Sapto Edy, a member of the House's Commission VII which oversees energy affairs, said the short list included Royal Dutch Shell, Norway?s StatoilHydro, the China National Petroleum Co. (CNPC) and the former operator of Natuna, US-based ExxonMobil.
He made the statement during a meeting between the Commission with Pertamina's new president Karen Agustiawan.
Karen however refused to confirm the statement during the meeting, saying only that she would provide a detailed, written statement to the commission in the near future
Tjatur also demanded that Pertamina take a minimum stake of 51 percent in the project, and ultimately be appointed operator.
Alvin Lie, another commission member, echoed Tjatur?s comments, adding that the block development?s should be free of intervention by third parties. ?Pertamina should select partners based solely on their capabilities ... not because of JK?s intervention,? he said, referring to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
The government has handed over the block to Pertamina after the contract owned by American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil Corp. expired. The block is believed to hold 47 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.
Karen said in November last year that Pertamina is ready to farm out up to 60 percent interest in the giant block to partner and did not rule out the possibility of selecting more than one partners. Karen said Pertamina and the partner(s) might form a Joint Operating Committee to co-operate the block.
Pertamina then short-listed eight international companies as potential partners to develop the block. The companies are ExxonMobil, Corp., Total SA, Chevron Corp., StatOil, Royal Dutch/Shell, Eni SpA, Petronas and China National Petroleum Corp.
Evita Legowo, the Energy Ministry?s director general of oil, and gas, said on Monday that the ministry had set up a negotiating team to meet with Pertamina representatives later this week. (*)