The tender of MFK oil block delayed until July
Monday, June 13 2005 - 02:08 AM WIB
"The tender of the MFK oil block could not be carried out this month as scheduled due to the conflict within the Riau administration," Novian M. Thaib, the director for exploration and production at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said in Jakarta on Saturday.
Novian refused to elaborate what kind of dispute was taking place in the local government but sources said that the conflict occurred because the Riau provincial administration recommended local private company PT Sarana Pembangunan Riau to join the tender, instead its owned company PT Riau Petroleum.
The ministry initially planned to tender the MFK on June 25, together with the auction of 27 new oil and gas blocks. MFK, located in Riau province is one of old oil blocks to be tendered by the government. The oil block was formerly operated by Caltex Pacific Indonesia. (*)