State energy holding company Pertamina will reportedly get a 30 percent stake in the Corridor block in South Sumatra, one of the country’s largest gas blocks. The current contract for the block expires in 2023.

“I have received information that Pertamina would only get 30 percent in Corridor,” Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a lawmaker of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said during a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday.

Rieke, who is a member of House Commission VI on energy policy, appeared to believe that Pertamina should have a larger stake in the block.

Pertamina investment planning and risk management director Heru Setiawan did not deny Rieke’s statement, but he also did not confirm the size of the company’s stake in the block.

“We’re interested [in the Corridor block], but I can’t answer [questions] about the figure. Currently, it’s being discussed at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry,” he said.

Pertamina currently has a 10 percent stake in the block, while ConocoPhillips Indonesia (COPI) – a unit of Unites States-based ConocoPhillips – controls 54 percent and Spanish energy company Repsol has 36 percent.

As of June, the Corridor block is the second-biggest gas producer with 827 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas or 148,000 barrel of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

Previously, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry acting oil and gas director general Djoko Siswanto said the government was in the final stage to determine the new Corridor block operator. “We’re still in the finalization phase. We’ll decide it soon,” he said on Monday.

Initially, the government had planned to announce the new constructor last December. (bbn)