Indonesia Awards 14 New Oil, Gas Blocks

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government Thursday awarded 14 new oil and gas blocks to investors as the former member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries struggles to boost crude oil production.

Edi Hermantoro, director general of oil and gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, told reporters the 14 blocks were part of the 16 the government offered to investors last year. Two of them failed to attract interest from investors.

Among the 14 blocks, Mr. Hermantoro said the government awarded:

the West Natuna Block to Premier Oil West Tuna Ltd., a unit of Premier Oil PLC,the West and North East Bangkanai blocks to Salamander Energy PLC,the West Sebuku Block to a consortium led by Inpex Corp. and Mubadala Petroleum Holdings (South East Asia) Ltd., andthe Merangin III Block to Cooper Energy Ltd.

He said the investors will spend $84.30 million in total on exploration activities during the first three years.

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