Tempo Interactive, Indonesia : Shell to Clarify Ambalat Case This Week (ShellNews.net) 14 March 05

Monday, 14 March, 2005

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Shell Indonesia will clarify the Ambalat case to the Director General of Oil and Gas, Arifin Takhyan, this week.

“Shell representatives have asked to meet me,” said Takhyan at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources on Monday (14/3). Takhyan said that the government would ask why Shell has been allowed to enter the Ambalat Block through Malaysia.

The Director-General of Oil and Gas will also ask for clarification about the possibility of Shell having leaked government data about the Ambalat block. “In the contract it states that all data belongs to the government, and Shell can use it during the contract period but if it is to be transferred to another party then this can only be done with the government’s permission,” said Takhyan. He went on to say that if the contract period has already ended, then all data must be returned to the government.

Regarding the possibility that Shell leaked any data, this would be hard to prove, continued Takhyan. “But logically, their (Shell) internal staff already knew.”

In 1999, Shell managed a block in the Ambalat area but then in 2001 it was released to ENI, an oil company from Italy. Since that time ENI has been drilling for and obtaining oil reserves.

Wally Saleh, Shell Indonesia’s President for External and Business Affairs, said that there will be a meeting with the Director-General of Oil and Gas. “We often had the meeting with the Director General, and perhaps one of the topics will be clarification regarding the Ambalat Block,” he said. Saleh went on to explain that up to now not many people realized that there was an overlap between the Ambalat Block and N6, the block that Shell has been exploring with Petronas of Malaysia in the Sulawesi Sea.

“But I do not know how large the overlap is,” he said.

Muhammad Fasabeni

http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2005/03/14/brk,20050314-03,uk.html