Page 7 - AsianOil Week 04 2021

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil

Premier farms down at

Tuna PSC to Zarubezhneft

FINANCE & UK oil Producer Premier Oil has completed
INVESTMENT the farm-down of its interest in the Tuna pro-
duction-sharing contract (PSC) off Indonesia to
Russia’s state-owned Zarubezhneft.
The deal was closed after approval from
Indonesia’s government and has left Premier
with a 50% operating stake in Tuna PSC, while
Zarubezhneft has the remaining 50%. Zarubezh-
neft has agreed to cover Premier’s share of the
cost of a two-well appraisal campaign, slated to
start in the second quarter of 2021.
Premier also said it had received government
approval for a one-year extension of the Tuna
PSC exploration period until March 2022.
Premier entered the Tuna PSC in 2007
after filing a winning bid in an Indone-
sian licensing round. It secured operator-
ship and a 65% stake in the project, while
Japan’s Mitsui Oil Exploration and South
Korea’s GS Energy obtained shares of 20% The rest of its major assets are in Russia, although
and 15% respectively. it is also exploring for oil in Cuba.
Premier sank two wells in 2014 at the site, Zarubezhneft is looking to expand into other
near the maritime border between Indonesia countries, but has suffered setbacks. It unsuc-
and Vietnam, yielding the Kuda Laut and Singa cessfully took part in a licensing round in Ecua-
Laut oil and gas discoveries, assessed at 100mn dor in 2019 and had set its sights on a project in
barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in size. Premier Iran, but was forced to withdraw after US sanc-
then signed a memorandum with Indonesia’s tions were introduced. It signed a memorandum
upstream regulator SKK Migas in November last year for upstream activities in Algeria.
2017 covering future gas sales from Tuna to Premier already produces gas at Indonesia’s
Vietnam. offshore Natuna Sea A block and is exploring for
This marks Zarubezhneft’s first foray into more in the country’s South Andaman Sea play,
Indonesia. The company is a major offshore in partnership with the UAE’s Mubadala Petro-
player in neighbouring Vietnam through its leum. The company is currently in the process of
Vietsovpetro joint venture with Zarubezhneft. merging with fellow UK producer Chrysaor.™

Iran chases Indonesia

over tanker seizures

POLICY THE Iranian government is reportedly demand- were switched off, local authorities announced
ing an explanation from Indonesia for its deci- earlier in the day.
sion last week to seize an Iranian tanker Local reports referred to officials alleging
Iran’s Minister of Oil, Bijan Namdar Zan- that gas condensate was being transferred by the
ganeh, said on January 24 that his ministry was Iranian ship, the MT Horse, to the Panamani-
chasing up Indonesian authorities over the sei- an-flagged MT Freya while they were illegally
zure, IRNA reported. anchored in Indonesian territorial waters.
The Indonesian Coast Guard detained both The Horse, which is known to have previ-
an Iranian tanker and a Panamanian-flagged ously supplied 2mn barrels of gas condensate to
tanker, claiming the former was making an ille- Venezuela, was believed to be once again head-
gal ship-to-ship (STS) transfer to the latter and ing in the direction of the South American coun-
that the vessels’ ship-identification transponders try, officials in Jakarta said.

Week 04 28•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7