The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has planned to auction one of the five oil and gas exploration areas in Indonesia located in Seram, Maluku.
The Seram exploration area is currently almost completing the joint study stage and will enter the 2024 phase II of oil and gas auction.
According to the Ministry of ESDM, this area has a potential of around 7.5 billion barrels of oil and 11.5 TCF of gas. The other four exploration focus areas are the Buton area with a potential of around 1 billion barrels of oil and 3.8 TCF of gas, the Timor area with around 4.9 billion barrels of oil and 29.6 TCF of gas, the Aru area with 6.8 billion barrels of oil and 50.1 TCF of gas, and the Warim area with 25.9 billion barrels of oil and 47.2 TCF of gas.
Such potential is an interesting resource or indicator to be explored further and prepared to become an oil and gas block.
“Of the five areas, oil and gas contractors have shown interest in conducting joint studies to prepare oil and gas blocks and some have even become oil and gas blocks,” Dadan Kusdiana, Acting Director General of Oil and Gas at the ESDM ministry, said on Tuesday, August 6, 2024.
Currently, the government continues to encourage oil and gas exploration in the Eastern Indonesia region through the Pertamina Jambi Merang Definite Work Commitment (KKP) activities, especially seismic activity over 32,000 kilometers (km) which ultimately resulted in the 5 focus areas.
This focus area is an effort by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to encourage increased exploration activities and the discovery of new oil and gas potential and reserves in frontier areas.
The ESDM ministry has also approved the joint study proposal for most of the areas, namely the Buton area, Timor area, and Aru area, in June 2024. After the joint study is completed, the area will be auctioned and the winner or operator of the block will be determined.
In the Aru area, there is also an area that has become an oil and gas block, namely the Bobara oil and gas block, the winner of which was Petronas at the 2024 IPA last May.
