Indonesia has awarded exploration rights for four oil and gas blocks to four foreign energy companies, including US giant Exxon Mobil and Canada's Husky Energy, the energy ministry said on Friday.
Novian Thaib, a director at the ministry, said the companies were expected to invest $203 million in the first three years of exploration. He did not give details.
"The four areas have potential for hydrocarbon findings, but we will only know when the investors carry out drilling in those blocks," he told reporters. Exxon Mobil has won the rights to explore the Surumana block in Makassar Strait, while Marathon Petroleum Indonesia, the local arm of Marathon Oil Corp, has got the rights to explore Pasang Kayu, also in that region.
Malaysia's Petronas obtained exploration rights for the offshore Lampung II block in the southern part of Sumatra, and the offshore East Bawean II block in East Java went to Husky Energy.
In June last year, Indonesia offered 27 new exploration areas in a bid to attract foreign investment and lift its dwindling oil output. Eight contracts were signed in October.
"There are about 15 blocks available for investors if they are interested," Thaib said. Indonesia, Asia-Pacific's only Opec member, has struggled to maintain production as the country has failed to tap new oilfields fast enough. Indonesia was a net importer of crude throughout the second quarter of 2005, as production at its oilfields declined at a rate of 5 percent or more annually. Indonesia has said it has around 9 billion of proven and potential oil reserves and 182 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.