On Friday 2 March, Statoil and Pertamina (Persero) were awarded the Karama deepwater block in the Makassar Strait in Indonesia.
Statoil will be the operator with a 51% participating interest and Pertamina, Indonesia’s national oil and gas company, will hold 49%.
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in September 2006. The production sharing contract (PSC) on the Karama block is the first joint project to be realised in that context.
“We are pleased by this announcement which will further develop the partnership between Pertamina and Statoil,” says Peter Mellbye, executive vice president of International Exploration & Production (INT).
“The two companies complement each other with regard to skills and technology. We are looking forward to working closely with Pertamina in unlocking the resource-potential in the Karama licence.”
“The award is a key step for Statoil to build an upstream position in South East Asia and fits our global exploration strategy well,” Mr Mellbye adds. “The operatorship of the Karama Block is a great opportunity to transfer and share Statoil’s strong technological capabilities that have been developed through operations on the Norwegian continental shelf, and internationally, over the past 30 years.”
The companies’ winning bid in the first three years of exploration period comprised: a USD 5 million signature bonus, 1,900 square kilometres of 3D seismic and three exploration wells in the acreage that has not previously been explored for oil and gas.
The block is located adjacent to and south of the Kuma block, off the west coast of Sulawesi. Statoil has a 40% share in Kuma which was awarded in mid-January. The Karama block covers an area of 4,286 sq km in water depths of 800-2,200 metres.