Indonesia offers three new oil blocks

An official from the Energy Ministry said that Indonesia has opened a new round of oil-and-gas block tenders, and offered three new blocks to contractors. This is part of efforts to increase energy supplies.

Indonesia's oil production has declined over the last decade as reserves have been depleted. The government has promised to offer dozens more blocks in the coming years in order to reverse this trend.

Tri Winarno, a ministry official, said that the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry offered on Tuesday to sell Gagah, an oil and gas block located in South Sumatra Province. The estimated resource is 173 million barrels or 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Tri, who spoke at the Indonesia Petroleum Association Conference, said that the ministry has also offered to offer Perkasa Block, located both onshore and off-shore in East Java Province.

He said that the Perkasa oil block contains 228 million barrels or 1.3 trillion of oil.

Pertamina, the state-owned energy company, was offered directly by the government. The Lavender gas block is located both onshore and off-shore South Sulawesi, and its estimated gas resources are around 10 trillion cubic foot.

Tri said that the government would offer attractive fiscal incentives, flexible contract schemes, and other incentives for these blocks to create a "more comfortable investment environment" in oil and gas.

The ministry announced that Huatong Services Indonesia had won the Air Komering contract in the southern region Sumatra's previous round of bids. (Reporting and writing by Bernadette Cristina Munthe and Dewi Kurianawati, Fransiska Naangoy; editing by Christopher Cushing).

(source: Reuters)