Riau has yet to select partners in operating CPP

The provincial administration of Riau has yet to decide its partners in taking over the management and the operation of the Coastal Plains Pekanbaru (CPP) oil block from PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia.

Ruskin Har, the spokesman for the provincial administration, said in Pekanbaru on Friday that the local government was still negotiating the takeover plan with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and state oil and gas Pertamina.

"The Riau government is still in negotiation process and has yet decide which partners it will cooperate with," he was quoted as saying by Riau Pos.

He said that the local government recently established a new company to take over the management of the oil block when the current contract expired in August next year. The new company PT Riau Makmur Petroleum will represent the local government in the operation of the oil block.

The government initially decided to appoint a joint venture between Pertamina and Caltex to take over the operation and the management of the oil field. But the plan was immediately cancelled after President Abdurrahman Wahid early this year decided the province as the most rightful institution to operate the oil block, a move widely seen as a political concession to ease the independence movement in the province.

The province was then offered three options to manage the oil field; operating the oil block under a join venture with Pertamina or with Caltex, or with both of the oil giants. But Riau rejected the offer and demanded to manage the CPP oil field with its own partner.

The provincial administration of Riau later said that it was still considering mines and energy minister's offer to cooperate with Pertamina in operating the oil block. (*)