US firm enters Indonesia oil sands project

Little-known US firm Infrastructure Developments Corp. announced Thursday that its subsidiary, Intelspec LLC, has signed a memorandum of agreement to manage the development and/or disposition of a large oil sands concession in Indonesia.

The agreement is structured as a profit sharing arrangement that provides Infrastructure an opportunity to manage the sale or lease of the 2,000 hectare project, as well as the right to overall management of the development concession in the future, the company said.

The initial soil testing and surveys completed by independent parties indicate up to 60% bitumen content, qualifying the area, located in South Sulawesi, as an oil sands field. The yield of pure bitumen could reach to hundreds of millions of barrels, it claimed.

Bitumen is commonly used in the construction of roads and highways and can be refined into petroleum products. (alex)