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rance-based oil and gas company Total E&P Indonesie has requested more incentives to develop the gas-rich offshore Mahakam block in East Kalimantan amid uncertainty over the firm’s future involvement in the project.

Total vice president for coordination Yoseph Gunawan said on Thursday that the incentive package would ease the contractor’s investment plan for the block as the current concession is due to expire in 2017.

“We want to keep the discussion of possible incentives going just in case our contract is not extended,” he said in a meeting with officials of the upstream oil and gas regulator SKKMigas in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

The Indonesian government has yet to decide whether to keep Total — who has been the operator of the block since 1997 in a 20-year production-sharing contract (PSC) — as the block’s operator after 2017 or hand over the task to state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina.

The incentives, Yoseph said, would elude the contractor from huge losses while keeping the investment for the block to maintain its production level as the block’s gas and condensate output has declined at an annual rate of 15 to 20 percent since 2011.

Total’s combined investment with Japan’s Inpex, which has a 50 percent interest in the Mahakam block, will reach between US$2 billion to $2.5 billion per year to develop the block.

In a presentation before the regulator’s executives on Thursday, the company said new projects for Mahakam would “have more and more marginal economics” even including the post-2017 period, adding that “cut-off 2017 further reduces economics to launch the projects.”

The development of the Tunu and Peciko fields, which both serve as the backbone of the Mahakam block output, have been in the “standby” position amid the uncertainty of the Mahakam concession, Yoseph said.

SKKMigas planning deputy Aussie Gautama, who led the meeting, said the regulator “understands” that the current uncertainty would delay Total’s investment in the Mahakam block leading them to bid for incentives.

In May 2011, the government made a last minute decision regarding whether to give Kodeco an extension or hand over the contract for West Madura offshore block to Pertamina. The production at the block significantly dropped as the uncertainty made Kodeco hesitant to expand or invest further.

Total, the largest natural gas producer in Indonesia, aims to produce 1,577 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) by the end of this year and, according to SKKMigas’ data, it has managed to produce 1,780 mmscfd — 12 percent higher than the target. The 2013 target, however, was lower than the 2012 target of 2,020 mmscfd.