Gurdip Singh
Special Correspondent
Australia

ADELAIDE, Australia -- Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd. (AWE) is considering exploration in Indonesia, its managing director Bruce Phillips said today.

Addressing the press at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference, Phillips said AWE has to go global to further expand from its current base of four assets in Australia and New Zealand.

"We have been looking at Indonesian basins for 1-1/2 years," Phillips said. AWE entry into the Indonesian basins would be through new exploration assets rather than oil and gas producing assets, he said.

Phillips also voiced concerned about the rising hydrocarbon asset nationalism in many of the world's leading oil and gas producing countries, which makes a junior exploration company like AWE cautious about venturing into high risk projects.

4/19/2007