Pertamina, Petronas, PetroChina compete for Devon's Indonesia fields: Report

The national oil companies of Malaysia and Indonesia and China's PetroChina Co are competing to buy over Devon Energy Corp's Indonesian oil and gas fields, including Jabung field from which there are plans to ship gas to Singapore, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Devon will announce the winning bidder on April 15, Pertamina senior vice-president for upstream operations, Iin Arifin Takhyan was quoted as saying by the newswires.

Pertamina submitted a bid yesterday, competing for the fields with Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, and PetroChina Co.

Oklahoma-based Devon Energy bought the assets when it acquired Santa Fe Snyder Corp in 2000.

"We will consider taking a partner, depending on whether we win or not," said Iin.

Pertamina had said in January it was talking to potential partners about bidding for Devon Energy's holdings in Indonesia.

Indonesia wants to encourage investment in oil exploration to boost reserves, which have remained at five billion barrels since the end of 1996. Oil and gas accounted for 23 per cent, or US$14.2 billion, of the country's total export earnings in 2000.

Devon Energy in January completed a US$3 billion acquisition of US rival Mitchell Energy & Development Corp, three months after buying Canada's Anderson Exploration Ltd for US$4.3 billion.

The company has said it plans to sell about US$1 billion in assets following the acquisitions. (*)