Riau to decide share portion of CPP oil block next week

Governor of Riau Saleh Djasit said on Tuesday that the provincial government and the Siak regency administration would decide next week on their share portion in the Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) oil block.

The local Riau Post daily quoted Saleh as saying that Riau?s ownership in the CPP oil block would not only be divided between the provincial and the Siak regency, which has administrative jurisdiction over the oil block, but would also be distributed to three other oil-producing regencies in the province including Pelalawan, Bengkalis, and Kampar.

Saleh said that the negotiation over the share split should not become a problem, adding the share portion of the provincial administration would be represented by PT Riau Petroleum.

The state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, and the Riau provincial administration have reached an agreement to co-manage the CPP oil block when the contract of the current operator PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia expires in August 2002. Both Riau and Pertamina agreed each would have a 50 percent participating interest of the contractor share (15 percent) in the CPP oil block, which currently has a production capacity of 50,000 barrels per day.(*)