PTTEP Buys Stake in East Natuna Gas Exploration Consortium

Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) has decided to buy a 15% stake in a consortium that is developing Indonesia's massive East Natuna gas block, Dow Jones Newswire reported Indonesian state-owned oil and gas producer PT Pertamina as saying.

PTTEP's stake would replace that of Malaysia's Petronas, which pulled out of a Pertamina-led consortium to develop the offshore block earlier this year, the report said.

After the move Pertamina will have a 35% stake, Exxon Mobil Corp. will own 35% and Total SA remaining 15%.

Dow Jones report says that Pertamina was seeking several partners to help it develop the block, which has an estimated 46 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it the biggest gas reserves in Asia. The gas, however, has a high level of carbon dioxide, requiring a large investment and sophisticated technology to remove.

The Indonesian government has previously said it hoped to begin producing gas in the block as early as 2017.