Competing offshore energy claims head toward Malaysia, Indonesia dispute KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Malaysia and Indonesia appear headed toward a territorial dispute, with their national oil companies laying claim to potentially rich offshore oil-and-gas blocks off Borneo island.
Malaysia's national oil company, Petronas, said in a statement Thursday that it "was in advance stages of awarding the ultra-deepwater blocks ... which is within the Malaysian territorial boundary." But Pertamina, the Indonesian oil company, is also planning to award exploration contracts for the two blocks, located about 150 kilometers (90 miles) off the Malaysian eastern state of Sabah and Indonesia's Kalimantan province, the New Straits Timesnewspaper reported. Indonesian officials in Kuala Lumpur declined to comment, referring the matter to the government in Jakarta. Zainal Abidin Osman, a senior Foreign Ministry official, said that Malaysia was ready to contest any overlapping claim to the area. "Malaysia's rights over these areas have never been disputed by any country before as they are clearly ours," Zainal was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times. The blocks lie near the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan, which for years were the subject of a dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia. The International Court of Justice handed Malaysia sovereignty in 2002. Malaysia has also been stepping up its maritime claims around a zone rich in oil and natural gas near the Borneo island state of Sarawak that has been disputed by neighboring Brunei. The ambiguity resulted in a confrontation in March last year, when a Malaysian navy patrol vessel ordered out an exploration team from Total, the French company awarded the exploration contract by Brunei. Subsequent negotiations on production-sharing are believed to have stalled. (**) -- my blog : http://putrohari.tripod.com/Putrohari/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit IAGI Website: http://iagi.or.id IAGI-net Archive 1: http://www.mail-archive.com/iagi-net%40iagi.or.id/ IAGI-net Archive 2: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iagi Komisi Sedimentologi (FOSI) : F. Hasan Sidi([EMAIL PROTECTED])-http://fosi.iagi.or.id Komisi SDM/Pendidikan : Edy Sunardi([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Komisi Karst : Hanang Samodra([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Komisi Sertifikasi : M. Suryowibowo([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Komisi OTODA : Ridwan Djamaluddin([EMAIL PROTECTED] atau [EMAIL PROTECTED]), Arif Zardi Dahlius([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Komisi Database Geologi : Aria A. Mulhadiono([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ---------------------------------------------------------------------
