Jakarta tenders six oil and gas blocks
Indonesia's first upstream bidding round of the year will award five new exploration concessions and a single exploitation working licence, Channel News Asia reported July 20, citing an unnamed senior energy official.
The combined acreage is thought to contain a resources potential of 3.9bn oil barrels and 14.1 trillion ft3 in natural gas.
All the licence areas lie offshore Indonesia's many coastlines. They were identified as Northwest Aceh (Aceh), Southwest Aceh (Aceh), Arakundo (Aceh), Bawean (East Java), Bengara 1 (North Kalimantan) and Maratua 2 (Makassar Strait).
Speaking on behalf of Jakarta, Indonesia's ministry director-general of oil and gas Tutuka Ariadji said his department had tweaked the revenue spilt for the new production sharing contracts and has also promised greater flexibility to lure in international oil companies.
For example, the shareable first tranche petroleum (FTP) charge on oil and gas revenues has been reduced to 10% from 20%. FTP refers to the share of Indonesian PSC oil and gas production that Jakarta collects before the licence holder can claim deductions from its operating and production and handling costs.
Indonesia's upstream oil and gas output has steadily declined over many years, but Pertamina's 2022 guidance offers some hope. The state-owned energy giant expects hydrocarbon output to rise 17% on the year, averaging at 1mn barrels of oil equivalent/day.