KONTAN.CO.ID - TANGERANG, Indonesia. Indonesia has awarded three oil and gas blocks with estimated resources of more than 2.4 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of gas to three companies, its energy ministry said on Thursday.

The three blocks were offered in the first bidding round earlier this year and the winners pledged to a total investment of $22.2 million for the first three years and a $650,000 signature bonus.

"We would like to convey our expectation that you would be able to keep the commitments while also actively participating in supporting the national energy demand in the future," energy ministry official Noor Arifin Muhammad said during the announcement at the Indonesia Petroleum Association annual conference.

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The Akia block in North Kalimantan, which has estimated resources of two billion barrels of oil and nine trillion cubic feet of gas, was awarded to a consortium of Armada Etan Ltd. and Pexco Tarakan N.V.

The Beluga working area in west Natuna with estimated resources of 360 million barrels of oil and 50 billion cubic feet of gas was awarded to Medco Energi Linggau, a unit of Medco Energi Internasional.

The government also awarded the Bengara I working area in onshore North Kalimantan with estimated resources of 90 million barrels oil equivalent to Texcal Mahato EP FZCO.

The Southeast Asian oil and gas producer announced a second oil and gas working areas bidding round earlier this week, which included an offering for the Natuna D-Alpha block in the South China Sea.

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Indonesia plans to offer a total of ten new oil and gas blocks this year as it aims to increase oil lifting to 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030 and gas lifting to 12 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), from currently around 615,000 bpd of oil and 5 bcfd gas.

Editor: Yudho Winarto