Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 8 -- The Indonesian government has reactivated a special negotiating team in the hope of ending a months-long deadlock in contract talks between ExxonMobil Corp. and state-owned PT Pertamina over East Java's Cepu Block.
State Minister of State Enterprises Tien Sugiharto said the interministerial team, which in June ended a 4-year dispute by getting the companies and government to agree to a development deal, would be empowered to resolve the further disagreement over operatorship.
"The previous interministerial team is now tasked with helping Pertamina and ExxonMobil to settle the operatorship issue. I may say this will no longer be a business-to-business settlement," Sugiharto said.
He noted that the team had already provided one possible solution to the disagreement between Pertamina and ExxonMobil by creating a joint-venture company to specifically operate the block.
In November, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered state oil company PT Pertamina to jointly operate the Cepu Block with ExxonMobil Corp. on a rotating basis, according to Pertamina Pres. Widya Purnama (OGJ, Dec. 5, 2005, Newsletter). Sugiharto said the team has "another option."
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
