JAKARTA. East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak said the shareholder composition for the country’s biggest gas block Mahakam had recently been arranged.

The shares will be controlled by the central government, local government and state-run companies.

Awang said, however, that the old operator, French energy giant branch PT Total E&P Indonesie, would still hold 30 percent of shares in the Mahakam Block, leaving the lions share to Indonesia.

State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina is projected to be the major shareholder in the block by controlling 51 percent of its stakes while the remaining 19 percent will be controlled by the regional government.

“Shares in the regional government will be divided into 11.4 percent for East Kalimantan province and 7.6 percent for Kuta Kartanegara regency,” the governor said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Separately, Pertamina upstream director Syamsu Alam said that he had not heard the new composition of shareholders in the Mahakam Block.

“We are still waiting for the announcement from the central government regarding this issue,” Syamsu said as quoted by kontan.co.id.

Previously on Monday, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said told reporters during a visit to Aceh that the government had decided to appoint Pertamina to take over the Mahakam gas block when the current contract, held by Total, expired in 2017.

“The government has made a clear decision that it will give the Mahakam block to Pertamina. Regarding the percentage of ownership, we will let Pertamina negotiate [with partners], however, we want Pertamina to have majority [control],” Sudirman said. (nfo)

Editor: Yudho Winarto