Pertamina may get 40% of Natuna gas

The government is proposing a producing sharing scheme for the Natuna D-Alpha block, under which state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina will get 40 percent of the hydrocarbon produced from the block and the government 60 percent.

?The split is 60 : 40 percent in favor of the government. This is a general split,? Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Thursday.

Pertamina's production share will automatically be reduced once the firm sets up partnership with other companies, he said.

He said the PSC for the block is being finalized and the Directorate General of Oil and Gas has sent the draft terms and conditions of the contract to oil and gas upstream regulator BPMIGAS for a review.

BPMIGAS head R. Priyono, however, said the agency had yet to receive the draft.

The block which is believed to hold hold 47 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas has been handed over to Pertamina after the government considered the contract held by American firm ExxonMobil Corp had expired.

Pertamina's President Director Karen Agustiawan said in November last year that Pertamina is ready to farm out up to 60 percent of its interest in the block to partner(s) and did not rule out the possibility of selecting more than one partners. She said Pertamina and the partner(s) might form a Joint Operating Committee to co-operate the block.

Pertamina has 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. (bernard)