INDONESIA - Total Operations.

Total of France in January 2007 announced plans to invest $6 bn in Indonesia over the next five years. Then visiting Jakarta and having held talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Total Chairman Thierry Desmarest said the French major wanted better terms before extending key oil and gas E&P contracts. He said Total had already doubled its investment to $1 bn in the past three years. The $6 bn, he said, would be used to increase capacity at Total's Mahakam Delta oil and gas block in East Kalimantan, on Borneo Island, and to search for new oil and gas reserves. The Mahakam Delta block already employed some 20,000 people, he added.

Desmarest, who was accompanied by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, said Total remained committed for the long term in Indonesia. He said Total was negotiating with Pertamina to raise its gas output to meet domestic and exports demands, but gave no figures. Yusgiantoro said the government was preparing to negotiate an extension of Total's contract for the Mahakam block, which ends in 2017, but wanted better terms, adding: "Our wishes and theirs should be combined. In our talks we also discussed that if there is an extension, part [of the gas production] should go to the domestic [market]".

In Indonesia, Total produces more than 500,000 b/d of oil equivalent, of which 85% is natural gas. It supplies 60% of the gas requirements of the Bontang LNG complex, the largest in the world with an annual capacity of 22.25m tons/year. Total's new Sisi and Nubi fields are expected to come on stream in 2007 (gmt10IndnsFieldsMar7-05).