Source: Total to exit Mahakam block after contract expires

By Bernard Loebs

Inpex

PT Total E&P Indonesie, operator of the Mahakam block in East Kalimantan, has decided to completely withdraw from Mahakam block when the current production contract expires at the end of next year, according to a source.

The source told Petromindo.com on Thursday that Total will not participate in the management of the block starting 2018 under a new PSC, where the operatorship is transferred to state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

?Total will leave Mahakam,? the source said, adding that the decision has been informed by Total top officials during a recent meeting with President Joko Widodo.

The source said that Total?s current partner in Mahakam block, Inpex Corp, has also decided not to take the offer made by the government to have a participating interest in the block after 2017.

The government has decided to transfer the Mahakam block to Pertamina after the current contract expires at the end of 2017. The government, however, has offered both Total and Inpex to have participating interest in the block under the operatorship of Pertamina.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak