Total and Inpex Corporation are 50:50 stakeholders for the block.
“Between $2-$3 billion are ready to be decided by the end of this year,” Jean-Marie Guillermou, senior vice president Asia Pacific for Total exploration and production.
“The story of Mahakam today is just to bring to the plant all additional reserves that we can find,” Guillermou said.
Total has advised the government to extend its operating contract for Mahakam, situated on Borneo Island. The contract expires in 2017 and discussions on an extension started at the start of 2008. Asia Pacific contributes just 11% to Total’s overall production but 48% in terms of gas production.
“This region is our gas province,” Guillermou said.
Guillermou said details on the bidding process for Natuna D-Alpha block, an Indonesian gas field, has not been released and Total remained committed to the development.
“The bidding process has not been exactly described in detail… we may have a signal by the end of this year,” Guillermou said.
The giant Natuna gas field, which has around 222 tcf of gas reserves, will need an expected $40 billion to develop.
Indonesia’s government has appointed PT Pertamina as operator of Natuna, but it does not have the capacity to develop the gas field without help.
Indonesia was unsuccessful to meet all of its long-term contractual commitments for a number of years because of depletion of its gas fields and higher domestic demand.
