Shell to return to RI pre-1965 historical exploration data

Alfian ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 04/29/2009 1:25 PM  |  Business

The government expects it may find more oil and gas reserves based on historical Royal Dutch Shell plc exploration documents which will be returned to Indonesia.

Evita H. Legowo, director general for oil and gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said she had signed an MOU with Shell in the Hague on April, 22.

"Under the MOU, Shell agreed to return all its exploration documents before 1965," Evita said. She added Shell had committed to provide around US$500,000 to cover the scanning, processing and delivery of the documents.

"We expect the data transfer will be completed in no more than one and a half years," she said.

Shell began its activity in Indonesia over 100 years ago, but with the nationalization policy following independence the company sold all its assets in Indonesia to state oil and gas company Pertamina in 1965. However, most of the original exploration documents are still preserved in the Netherlands .

Asked whether Shell expected any trade off from returning the data, Evita said so far the agreement did not specify anything.

Shell is included in the list of eight candidates shortlisted by Pertamina to develop the Natuna D-Alpha block in the Riau Islands. The block is estimated to contain 46 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it the biggest gas reserve in Asia.

Evita said the documentation was expected to provide more information about oil and gas potential in Indonesia. "It is possible that, based on the data, we will find new oil and gas blocks," Evita said.

Although the government has conducted its own seismic surveys, Evita said it was still possible the government might have missed something. "Take the example of Cepu block. Humpuss had done exploration in the area, but it could not find big oil reserves. But, ExxonMobil later on found a big reserve in the block," she said.

Indonesia is struggling to pump more oil from aging fields. Declining oil production forced the country to withdraw from membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last year.

This year, Indonesia set the oil lifting target at 960,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), but oil lifting in quarter one was only 946,000 bopd.

Evita said the government had also proposed Stanvac, now known as ExxonMobil and Caltex, now transformed into Chevron, to return their exploration documents conducted before 1965.

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