Indonesia to Begin Offering Shale Blocks for Development

Indonesia is expected to start offering shale gas blocks for development this year.

Country’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s director general for oil and gas affairs, Edy Hermantoro, told The Jakarta Post that the government would start offering around four working contracts for development.

State-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, he said, would become the first firm to start the project in its working area in North Sumatra. Pertamina’s contract will be signed in May this year. He said that foreign firms are also expected to participate.

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, Jakarta Post said.

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.