AsianOil: ConocoPhillips to exit Indonesia’s Corridor block

US super-major ConocoPhillips is reportedly gearing up to walk away from the Corridor natural gas block onshore Indonesia.
The deputy head of upstream regulator SKK Migas, Fatar Yani Abdurrahman, revealed last week that the company had told the agency that it wanted to relinquish its stake in the licence.
ConocoPhillips operates the field with a 54% stake, while Spanish major Repsol owns 36% and Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina holds the remaining 10%.
The US developer has asked the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) to open a data room for investors interested in taking over the block, Abdurrahman told local news outlet Katadata on May 27. The official noted that the major had not revealed its reasons for leaving the field, which is the country’s second-largest producer of gas.
Abdurrahman reiterated ConocoPhillip’s lack of explanation for the departure in comments to Kontan on June 1, noting: “Verbally it has been conveyed like that.”
The official added that SKK Migas was still waiting for ConocoPhillips to submit a written proposal on its planned exit.
The existing production-sharing contract (PSC) for the Corridor block is set to expire on December 20, 2023, after which a new contract under the gross-split scheme will take effect. Under the new contract, which was awarded in July 2019, ConocoPhillips will own 46% of the field, while Repsol will hold 24% and Pertamina will own 30%.
The US super-major was slated to continue operating the block until 2026, at which point it was anticipated to begin transferring operational control to Pertamina.
Former Indonesian Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan said at the time that the contractors would eventually be expected to offer a combined 10% of stake to a municipally owned company.
ConocoPhillips is the latest in a line of international oil companies (IOC) that have moved to divest their interests in the country. Royal Dutch Shell began looking for buyers for its 35% stake in the Masela block last year, while Chevron also flagged up last year that it wanted to exit the second phase of the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) Project. While SKK Migas has repeatedly said over much of the past year that Italian major Eni is expected to take over IDD, a final deal is still to be struck.