Riau rejects West Kampar block's tender

The Riau provincial administration has rejected the result of a tender for the development of the West Kampar oil and gas block announced recently by the Directorate General of Oil and Gas, the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported in its Tuesday edition.

The adminitration said that the tender must be cancelled until the government resolves an ongoing problem at the West Kampar block, which overlapped with a protected cultural site.

"The government must first resolve the issue before it becomes a major problem," said M. Yafiz, chief of energy development at the Riau provincial administration.

Riau's request , according to Yafiz, for the rescheduling of the tender was not because the province-owned company did not win the tender.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources announced on Aug. 4, 2005 that PT Sumatra Persada Energi won the tender for the West Kampar block.

West Kampar block's area is encraoching into Muara Tikus temple, which is a protected cultural site.(*)