Pertamina wants empathic firm for Natuna partner

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina on Wednesday outlines its criteria to select partner to develop Natuna D Alpha giant gas reserves.

?We want partner(s) that have empathy and commitment to bring Pertamina into world-class company. The form of empathy is willingness to hand over Natuna operatorship to Pertamina in 10 years,? CEO Karen Agustiawan said.

?We have dropped companies that do not have such empathy from our list,? she said.

?We also want partner that is willing to swap its overseas interest with Pertamina,? she added.

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.

She did not give detail which companies Pertamina have dropped from its list.

Government had earlier said that Pertamina?s partner in Natuna must be willing to receive smaller split than Pertamina, which will get 40% split.(bernard)