Petronas executive says that Indonesia and Malaysia have approved the transfer of assets to the new Eni-Petronas joint venture.

A Petronas executive announced on Thursday that the Indonesian and Malaysian government?approved the change of ownership for oil and?gas blocks which will be?transferred to a new 'joint venture' between Petronas & Eni. Eni, the Italian energy company and Malaysian Petronas signed a contract in November to create a joint-venture?company. The 19 assets will be divided between 14 assets in Indonesia and 5 in Malaysia.

Yuzaini Md Yusof told the Indonesia Petroleum Association that the governments of both countries have approved the transfer of production-sharing contracts for these assets, from 'Petronas' and 'Eni, to the new company SEARAH.

He said that after the approvals the two companies will now conduct internal procedures to close the deal.

He said that the date we have set for the start of operations is July 1. We will announce it officially when everything is in place.

Eni said that the joint-venture would integrate a portfolio of gas-producing assets and development assets, with an initial production of more than 300,000. barrels of oil equivalent per day. (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

(source: Reuters)