Pertamina, Petronas to meet on East Natuna gas supply deal

State oil and gas firm Pertamina and Malaysia?s Petronas will meet in Kuala Lumpur from Monday to Wednesday to discuss the possibility of gas supply deal from East Natuna to Malaysia, according to Pertamina official.

?We are in the process of drafting a memorandum of understanding to jointly study the development of Natuna D Alpha Block, said Iin Arifin Takhyan, Pertamina?s upstream director in an interview prior to his departure to Malaysia Monday.

Iin earlier said that Petronas was seeking to secure gas supply of 1 billion cubic feet (BCF) per day from the giant gas field starting 2010, and Petronas was also seeking for upstream participation.

The D Alpha block, situated east of the Natuna islands, is considered one of the world?s largest gas field with estimated gas reserves of 222 trillion cubic feet, including 46 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. But the field contains 71 percent of carbon dioxide, which complicates the development and increases costs.

US oil giant ExxonMobil, through its subsidiaries Exxon Natuna Inc. and Mobil Natuna Inc., holds 76 percent interest in the block, with Pertamina holding the rest

An official from ExxonMobil earlier said that the economic volume to go on with East Natuna development was at least 1 BCF per day.(godang)