It Is Rumored That Many Companies Want To Join The Masela Block, Pertamina Opens Voice

President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero), Nicke Widyawati. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Oil and gas company (Migas) from China, PetroChina Company Ltd. to the oil and gas company from Malaysia, Petronas is reportedly interested in managing the Masela Block located in the Tanimbar Islands Islands, Maluku Province, Indonesia.

This follows the departure of Shell, who originally wanted to work on the project.

Responding to this, PT Pertamina (Persero) is currently in the negotiation stage to take over Shell'sgas, open the voice,

President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero), Nicke Widyawati, confirmed that Pertamina is the only candidate to replace Shell at the Masela Block consortium with Inpex Corporation.

"There is no such plan yet. So we go first ourselves. We'll see later," he said in Jakarta, quoted on Friday, January 27.

He added that his party is currently conducting a due deligence.

"So this is all still a process, we have conveyed the offering as well and we are currently studying some data sent," continued Nicke.

Meanwhile, Head of the Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas) Dwi Soetjipto revealed that the negotiation process over the management of the Masela Block between Shell and Pertamina is still ongoing.

He ensured that the negotiation process would be completed in the near future.

"The name of the negotiations must have gone up and down, so it is hoped that it will run soon," he added.

Dwi said that currently many companies are also interested in joining the Block Masela consortium with Inpex Corporation such as Petronas and PetroChina.

"Other parties are also interested and also have the logic, also continue the existing process. Hopefully Pertamina will deal and others will join there, and later it will depend on Pertamina itself and also Inpex as operators," explained Dwi.

Blok Masela has a huge potential for gas reserves, reaching 10.73 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).

Therefore, Blok Masela is often referred to as an eternal gas field.

The government claims that gas reserves in Blok Masela will not run out for the next 70 years.