Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said on Friday that the country expected the US to transfer technologies to develop shale gas following the unconventional natural gas boom in the country.

Shale is becoming an important source of natural gas, particularly in the US, where stories on the shale gas boom dominated news headlines last year. The shale gas boom in the US is expected to make them one of the world's largest gas exporters by 2018.

'The US government has successfully developed shale gas. Indonesia also possesses shale gas potential and thus we have asked them to enter shale gas exploration in our country,' Jero said in a statement.

Minister Jero announced the plan on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, this week, in which one of the agendas was a bilateral meeting between Indonesia and the US delegation.

In his last visit to Indonesia earlier this year, US President Barack Obama discussed the plan of transferring technologies of shale gas development with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, according to Jero.

Obama is slated to attend the APEC Economic Leaders meeting in Bali in October.

Last year, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry announced that Indonesia had estimated shale gas resources of around 574 trillion cubic feet (tcf) throughout Sumatra, Kalimantan, Papua and Java.

Shale gas resource in the country, according to the ministry's data, surpasses the unconventional coal bed methane (CBM) potential resource of around 453.3 tcf and conventional natural gas of around 153 tcf.

Sumatra supposedly had the largest shale gas reserves of around 233 tcf, particularly in the central region, where approximately 86.9 tcf of shale gas resources could be found, according to the ministry's geological bureau.

Kalimantan had an estimated 194 tcf of shale gas reserves, the ministry said, followed by Papua Island (90 tcf) and Java Island (48 tcf), while the remaining 9 tcf was spread across other parts of the archipelago.

In May this year, state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina was awarded the country's first shale gas project--the Sumbagut block in North Sumatra. The company committed to spend US$7.8 billion to explore the Sumbagut block, aiming to produce around 40 million meters standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) to 100 mmscfd from the project by 2020.

The ministry plans to offer two shale gas blocks'Kisaran block in North Sumatra and West Tanjung block in South Kalimantan'to oil and gas companies by the end of this year.

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