Pertamina To Hold Majority Interest In East Natuna Block

Jakarta, Aug 13 (ANTARA) - State oil and gas company PT Pertamina will hold the majority participating interest in the East Natuna block, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Rudi Rubiandini said. "Pertamina will hold the majority interest but I forget the percentage," he said here on Sunday. Previously, Pertamina held 35 percent, ExxonMobil 35 percent, Total SA 15 percent, and Petronas 15 percent of the participating interest in the block. However, Petronas resigned from a consortium exploring the block and returned its participating interest to the government. Rudi said the holder of operating rights had yet to be decided. The majority shareholder would not automatically hold the operating rights, he said. "There are still talks among them," he said. With Petronas resigning from the consortium, Pertamina, Exxon, and Total will explore the block. The study of the consortium`s proposal for the exploration of the block was still going on, he said. "Let`s wait for the results of the study," he added. The government has assigned the Upstream Oil and Gas Executive Agency (BP Migas) to study the proposal. The agency will later appoint an independent consultant to study the proposal. The study is expected to be completed on August 19, 2012. The government deems it necessary to conduct the study due to the consortium`s request for special privileges in the management of the block which holds huge has deposits. The block is believed to hold a total deposit of 500 million barrels of oil and 222 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, making it the world`s largest gas deposit. The government expects the block will start producing 1,000 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas in 2020. The peak production is estimated to reach 4,000 mmscfd.