TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Exxon sells stakes in two deepwater blocks to Petronas
US energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp
Change Size
U
S energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. has sold 20 percent stakes in each of its two deepwater oil and gas blocks in eastern Indonesia to Malaysia's Petronas.
Maman Budiman, Exxon's spokesman for Indonesia, said Petronas had acquired Exxon's stakes in the Mandar block in the Makassar Strait, and in the Surumana block off North Makassar.
"Petronas acquired 20 percent stakes in each block," Maman said Wednesday.
Asked why Exxon sold the stakes, Maman said the company wanted to "share the risks".
However, he declined to name the price of the acquisition paid by Petronas, saying the company was still evaluating it.
"We must calculate the investment that has been spent in the two blocks," he said.
"Exxon will then cover 80 percent of the spending and Petronas will cover the remaining 20 percent."
A 2007 publication by upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas says Exxon will need as much as US$70 million for exploration activities in the two blocks.
Exxon was awarded the production sharing contract (PSC) for the Mandar block in early 2007. The block covers an area of 4,200 square kilometers, down to a depth of 2 kilometers.
As for the Surumana block, Exxon won it in a 2005 tender. The Surumana block covers an area of 5,340 square kilometers, also to a depth of 2 kilometers.
On Tuesday, Exxon also announced it had started up the early production facilities for 20,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) at the Cepu block, located on the border of East Java and Central Java.
"We started up the facilities on Friday last week," Maman said.
Although the facilities have been started up for 20,000 bpd, Maman said the current production was still at about 6,000 bpd.
"The facility is just being started up, so it cannot immediately produce the 20,000 bpd," he said.
"Moreover, we can't produce the 20,000 bpd if the receiving facilities are not ready to receive the oil."
Of the targeted 20,000 bpd production, 6,000 bpd is supposed to be supplied to a fuel refinery operated by PT Tri Wahana Universal (TWU), and the rest to a crude processing facility jointly operated by state oil company PT Pertamina and China's Petrochina.
