Getting To Know The Ambalat Block: The Dispute Area Of Indonesia And Malaysia

Illustration of Block Ambalat (Antarenews)

YOGYAKARTA After a long time as a dispute between the two countries, now the Ambalat Block will be managed by Pertamina and Petronas. As is known, Pertamina is an oil company owned by Indonesia, while Petronas is owned by Malaysia. The agreement was established after the two countries negotiated with each other. For those of you who do not know Blok Ambalat, see the following article.

Reporting from the polkam.go.id page, the Ambalat Block is an area of waters in the Sulawesi Sea or Makassar Strait. The location of the block is close to the extension of the land border between Sabah, Malaysia and East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

It should be noted that Ambalat is a strategic area as well as has great natural resource potential. It has been a long time since the area has been known to store oil and natural gas. It is estimated that the use of natural resources in the Ambalat Block can be carried out for the next 30 years.

In an article entitled Block Ambalat: Between Disputes and Economic Cooperation Opportunities published in the Scientific Journal of Business Management and Innovation of Sam Ratulangi University, it is explained how the history of the Ambalat Block dispute.

The history of the conflict in Blok Ambalat began because of differences in views on the maritime boundaries between Indonesia and Malaysia in the region. The difference in views was triggered when Indonesia and Malaysia both gave exploration rights to foreign companies in the block.

In the Sea Border Dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia in the Ambalat Block, it was reviewed from the International Law in the Tambua Scientific Journal, it was also stated that at that time Malaysia gave concessions and exploration rights to The Royal Dutch / Shell Group Companies (Englanda-England joint oil company).

Malaysia has given its rights to consequences and exploration rights through Petronas. The Malaysian oil company won a profit-sharing contract on February 16, 2005 in Kuala Lumpur.

On the other hand, Indonesia also provided drilling concessions in the same region to Italian companies (ENI) in 1999 and "East Ambalat Block" to oil companies from America (Unocal) in 2004.

It should be noted that in 1969 there was an agreement for Malaysia's Landas Continent Boundary Deal. However, Malaysia submitted a new map on December 21, 1979, which in their new map image included the Ambalat maritime block into their territory.

The Indonesian side did not remain silent. The government believes that Indonesia's position as the owner of the Ambalat Block is very strong in this case. Indonesia's own position is based on the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) map. The UNCLOS map itself began to be recognized in 1982.

Although the dispute over the Ambalat Block took a long time, now Indonesia and Malaysia have had a new agreement. Informationd by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia that the construction of the Ambalat Block will be carried out by two countries through each BMN.

"The return is an area that politically feels that each of them claims that it is like that. There are or there are no restrictions. So to be honest, I say that there is a potential for oil and gas resources. One of the things we discuss is how we manage this area together for the common good," Bahlil explained, quoted Thursday, August 7.

In addition to knowing the Ambalat Block, visit VOI.id to get more interesting information.