T

he government has blamed the absence of comprehensive data for the lack of investor interest in an auction for the development of new oil and gas fields, a senior energy official says.

“We’ve conducted internal evaluations and found that lack of data is the main reason many candidate investors backed out of their plans,” Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry oil and gas director general Evita Herawati Legowo said at the announcement of the auction’s winners on Monday.

Evita said of the 14 oil and gas fields offered by the government this year, only three attracted
investors.

The 14 fields offered in the auction were Sokang, South Sokang, Southeast Baronang, Nias, Sunda Strait II, Sunda Strait III, Sunda Strait IV, South Kangean I, South Kangean II, Southwest Makassar, North Bone, Wokam I, Wokam II and Digul.

As many as 36 companies bought the application forms that were required to take part in the auction, but only three officially joined the process.

Evita said the three companies won three of the blocks being auctioned, Sokang, South Sokang and Wokam II.

“Ephindo Oil and Gas Holding won the Sokang field with a signing bonus of US$1.2 million and a total investment commitment for the first three years of $8.8 million,” she said.

She said a consortium of Lundin Oil and Gas B.V. and Salamander Energy won the South Sokang field with a total investment commitment of $9.3 million, and $1.1 million in signing bonuses.

“Murphy Overseas Ventures won the Wokam II field with a $1.2 million signing bonus and a total commitment of $9.6 million,” she said.

The government raised $27.7 million in new investment and $3.5 million in signing bonuses from the auction of the three fields.

Evita said her ministry would work harder to improve data gathering on oil and gas fields in Indonesia, particularly offshore fields. The current problem appeared to be due to the ministry’s very limited budget to conduct research and gather data, she added.

“We had several billion rupiah for data gathering. The money was absolutely not enough to cover all the oil and gas fields we have,” she said, adding that her office does not have a larger budget for next year.

The amount required to conduct seismic surveys in Sokang, South Sokang and Wokam III, for example, required around $14.7 million, Evita said. She said fields in the western part of the country badly needed more comprehensive data to attract investors.

She said her ministry would seek other solutions, like cooperating with private companies to gather data about the country’s oil and gas fields. A company would then be able to sell the data to other companies interested in exploring the fields.

“But the data will still be the state’s property,” she said.