Indonesia to award 25 blocks

Offshore staff

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The Indonesian government is expected to award 25 blocks in August. Eleven of the blocks will be negotiated through the regular tender process, and the rest will be disbursed via direct offer mechanism.

According to Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry officials, the government has added four blocks to an earlier plan to auction 21 blocks. The country will press ahead with plans to increase the domestic daily output to 1.3 million b/d of oil by 2009 from the current level of 1.04 million b/d. Volumes have slipped from the 1980s peak of 1.5 million b/d.

A new production-sharing scheme under Indonesia's production-sharing contract would allow investors to gain as much as 50% of the total revenue from remote and new frontier prospecting acreage, according to Luluk Sumiarso, the director-general of oil and gas at the Ministry in Jakarta.

8/6/2007