Norwegian Statoil has been awarded new exploration acreage offshore Indonesia.
The licence, through the Aru Trough I licence, covers an area of approximately 8,300 square kilometres, adjacent to Statoil’s existing exploration acreage in the Aru and West Papua IV licences. Statoil will operate the licence with a 100% working interest.
“This is a low-cost access into a frontier area with considerable potential where Statoil is already present. This position strengthens the optionality in Statoil’s long-term portfolio and secures potential upsides from our existing exploration acreage,” says Erling Vågnes, Statoil’s senior vice president for exploration in the Eastern hemisphere.
Statoil will initially collect seismic data during the first three years of the exploration period. The information obtained from the seismic survey will form the decision basis for Statoil’s next steps in the licence. Statoil aims to achieve equity production of above 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2020.
Recently, Statoil delivered strong exploration results by making several high impact discoveries, which have added significantly to its resource base. The latest finds give the company access to the new regions of Norway, Russia, Azerbaijan, Tanzania as well as Australia, paving way for long-term growth.
Statoil established its Indonesia office in 2007, and has since then built an exploration portfolio in a systematic manner. The last few years, oil and gas exploration in Indonesia has been shifting towards the eastern region of the country.
