Bolivia Offers its Oil/Gas Block Management to Indonesia

Jakarta - A Bolivian oil and gas company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), has offered the Indonesian state oil company PT Pertamina and other companies the opportunity to manage some oil and gas blocks in the Latin American country. "Bolivia now has 15 oil and gas fields in five extremely large blocks to be managed, besides 49 other blocks which are under exploration," declared YPFB President Director Roberto Cuadros Arenas in a press statement here on Friday. Roberto Arenas said that he wanted to introduce Indonesia's oil and gas companies to the potential of his country and the profit that can be obtained by investing in it. According to him, the 15 oil and gas fields whose management has been offered to Indonesian companies contain 13 trillion cubic feet of gas and 900 million barrels of oil, while the 64 blocks altogether have the potential to produce 60 trillion cubic feet of gas and 250 billion barrels of oil. He added that YPFB wanted to forge a special cooperation with Pertamina. "We believe that Pertamina is a reliable institution in Indonesia, and thus, YPFB especially invites it to join in investment cooperation," Roberto Arenas remarked. He noted that Pertamina was expected to participate in oil and gas exploration and production in Bolivia. However, the Indonesian state oil and gas company has been requested to conduct a feasibility study in advance. Roberto Arenas explained that Pertamina could enter into a 40-year investment contract with Bolivia, a country with high security levels and very good legal certainty. He is in Indonesia to participate in the 36th Indonesian Petroleum Association conference, as part of his efforts to attract investors to Bolivia.(*)