VIVAnews - The Indonesian government threatens to sue ExxonMobil Indonesia if it does not return oil and gas data of the Natuna D Alpha Block.
Up until today, ExxonMobil is still reluctant to hand over exploration data of the Natuna Block, Riau Islands, to the government, which would later be submitted to the new explorer of the block, Pertamina.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, said that based on the Law on Oil and Gas, exploration and exploitation data belongs to the government. "If Exxon does not return the data, we will sue them," he said on Friday, January 16.
Yusgiantoro said that in the Law, production sharing contractors that do not give back the data will be detained for one year and fined by Rp 10 billion (US$ 895,000).
ExxonMobil still keeps the mining record of the Natuna Block because the contract only expired on 9 January 2009. However, the government had not renewed the contract since 9 January 2005, because no oil was produced from the block.
Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono