TPT January 2007

Oil & Gas News

has said that, after development, more than 50 per cent of the revenue from the block would go to Jakarta in the form of taxes, production bonus, and net gas revenues. ExxonMobil holds a 76 per cent stake in the block; Indonesia’s state-owned PT Pertamina , the remaining 24 per cent. ■ Mines and energy minister Silas Rondeau, of Brazil, said Brazil and Bolivia reached a compromise agreement on 29 October on the sale of Bolivian gas to Brazil. The 30-year agreement, signed at the end of a 180-day period decreed by Bolivia after it nationalized its oil and gas industry on May 1, allows Bolivia to subcontract Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA , or Petrobras , to explore and produce natural gas. In return, Mr Rondeau said, Petrobras will receive a larger return (18 per cent of the sale price of the gas) to operate in Bolivia; 82 per cent will go to the Bolivian government. Brazil is the biggest consumer of Bolivian gas. ■ Uruguay has agreed with Ecuador’s state oil company PetroEcuador to participate in bids to buy crude in 2007, said Ivan Rodriguez, the Ecuadorian energy minister. The agreement, announced 4 November, includes the sale of Uruguayan gasoline to Ecuador, Mr Rodriguez told news media in Montevideo during the Summit of Ibero-American leaders. Mr Rodriguez pledged his country to following Uruguay’s conservation policies, which would net Ecuador a 10 per cent savings in energy: $100 million per year. Daniel Martinez, president of ANCAP , Uruguay’s state-run energy company, called the possibility of buying crude from Ecuador “spectacular, because it generates a strong flow of trade and strengthens our capacity to be open to the world.” ■

■ The China International Trust and Investment Corp is buying the Kazakhstan oil assets of the Nations Energy Company of Canada for $1.9 billion, adding reserves to meet surging demand in China. China International, a government investment company, acquires assets that produce 50,000 barrels of oil a day and hold more than 340 million barrels of oil equivalent. An assistant president at China International, Zhang Jijing, said that the company might also build a refinery in Kazakhstan (Bloomberg News, 27 October). ■ Japan, dependent on imports for almost all its oil and gas, and competing with China and India for reserves, may turn to Iraq and Indonesia after losing control of Iran’s biggest untapped field. Iran’s decision to strip the Japanese state-controlled Inpex Holdings Inc of its majority holding in the Azedegan field has jeopardized Japan’s plans to acquire overseas assets capable of meeting 40 per cent of its oil demand within 25 years. In late October, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government promised to invest in the shattered Iraqi energy industry in hopes that Japan will be able to tap the world’s third-largest oil reserves. Inpex may also spend $4.2 billion to develop the Abadi gas field off Indonesia. ■ The Indonesian government has agreed to renegotiate with ExxonMobil Corp , of the US, on a new contract to develop a massive natural gas deposit in the country’s Natuna D-Alpha block. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on 10 November that his government will seek to change the revenue-sharing terms of the old contract, which it unilaterally claims to have expired. The revenue split under the old contract is zero per cent for the government; 100 per cent for the contractor. But Exxon

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J ANUARY /F EBRUARY 2007