he Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry announced on Friday the signing of contracts with several companies to exploit the offshore West Ganal Block in the Makassar strait and the offshore Pangkah Block in East Java.
The ministry said in a statement that the contracts, both of which are based on gross split schemes, secured a total of US$36.1 million in signature bonuses – a form of non-tax state revenue – and $223.25 million in block development funds.
“The contracting companies have paid the bonuses,” the ministry's upstream oil and gas director Mustafid Gunawan told reporters at the contact signing ceremony in Jakarta.
He said West Ganal was contracted for 30 years to a consortium of three oil companies comprised of Italy’s Eni (40 percent share), Indonesia’s Pertamina (30 percent) and the UK’s Neptune Energy (30 percent). Eni acts as the block’s operator while the latter two as participants.
The three companies paid a combined $30.1 million signature bonus and are set to invest US$159.3 million to exploit the block, which includes drilling four new exploration wells, for the first three years of the contract.
The ministry also extended by 25 years the Pangkah Block contract with Saka Energi Indonesia, an upstream subsidiary of state-owned gas distributor PGN, which wholly owns the block. The extended contract is effective starting May 8, 2026.
“This was the fastest extension process [ever]. We asked them to pay [the bonus] immediately and they paid immediately,” said the ministry's acting oil and gas director general Djoko Siswanto.
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