Indonesia details acreage open for bidding.(Pertamina Humas P.T. opens 6 tracts for production sharing contracts and 23 areas for exploration)

Indonesia's state owned Pertamina has opened its 1996 tender of acreage available for exploration and development through joint ventures with foreign partners.

Included in the offering are three tracts in Indonesia's eastern frontier on which Pertamina is seeking production sharing contracts (PSCs). The blocks qualify for incentives Pertamina introduced in December 1993 to boost interest in underexplored areas.

That incentive package is available for onshore and offshore acreage in eastern Indonesia--except for tracts in the Salawati, Bintuni, and Scram basins--and for frontier acreage in western Indonesia.

Pertamina says the pace of exploration and development by foreign companies in partnership with the state company shows Indonesia's mix of terms and prospects is attractive compared with oil and gas opportunities in other parts of the world.

Although geological data are sparse in eastern Indonesia, companies working in the geologically complex region recently have reported pre-Tertiary discoveries at several sites.

Also in its 1996 tender, Pertamina is seeking PSCs on three tracts in western Indonesia. The company, in addition, is offering 23 areas for exploration through direct negotiations, including 22 blocks for PSCs and one for a joint operating agreement (JOA), and two tracts for development through technical assistant contracts (TACs).

Frontier tracts

Two of the eastern frontier tracts--Sabo and Rabe offshore blocks--included in Indonesia's 1996 tender are in the Southeast Timor Sea region, about midway between Timor Island and the Indonesian-Australian Zone of Cooperation (ZOC) in Timor Gap.

Sabo covers an area of about 4,570 sq km and Rabe 6,500 sq km.

The third frontier tract in eastern Indonesia, Kaimo, covers 10,000 sq km onshore in Irian Jaya, near the Arafuru Sea coast.

Terms covering exploration and development on the eastern …