RI to tender 21 oil, gas exploration blocks
Thursday, December 21 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The government plans to start tendering some 21 oil and gas exploration blocks in January next year, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.
Purnomo said that the 21 blocks would be tendered as production sharing contracts.
He said that the 21 exploration blocks were located in various places in the country including on the Makassar Straits (six blocks), the Natuna Island in Riau (two), Arafura Sea in West Papua (six), Kalimantan (three), Sulawesi (two), and on the Seram Island in Maluku (two).
Purnomo was speaking to reporters at a press conference on the year-end evaluation of the mining and energy sector.
He said that the tender would also measure the interest of investors in the country's oil, gas and mining sector.
He was convinced that the investor interest was still as high as before the country plunged into the current economic crisis.
Purnomo, however, hinted that the government might provide incentives if the interest was not as high as expected. He did not provide details.
The government has plans to double oil and gas production over the next five years. Among of the incentives being considered by the government is to increase the production share of investors in the production sharing contract mechanism from the current 15 percent level. (R. Amoros)