Vice president's family eyes Blora interest in Cepu block

The country's elite families including the son-in-law of Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla and the son of former president B.J. Habibie have shown their interest to take part in the "beauty contest" to team up with Blora regency in Central Java in developing the Cepu oil block, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Thursday.

Companies owned by Kalla's son-in-law Susanto Supardjo and Habibie's son Ilham are among the bidders of the Blora's regency's participating interest in the oil block.

Pertamina and ExxonMobil have 45 percent participating interest, respectively, in the Cepu oil block. The remaining 10 percent interests are shared by Central Java and East Java Administrations, with the composition of 2.18 percent for the Blora regency, 1.09 percent for the Central Java administration, 4.48 percent for the Bojonegoro regency and 2.24 percent for East Java provincial administration.

Like Pertamina and ExxonMobil, the local governments should also provide equity funds for the development of the oil block. The Blora regency would need at least Rp 600 billion of cash. As it could not provide the required funds it would invite private companies to jointly own its 2.18 participating interest in the Cepu oil block.

At least 20 companies had applied to join the beauty contest to become the Blora regency's partners in the Cepu block development, but only twelve of them could qualify to take part in the contest. (*)