VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources will offer foreigners the opportunity to invest in a number of oil and gas blocks.

Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Djoko Siswanto said in Jakarta on Wednesday that foreigners would be allowed to invest, in a bid to encourage the participation of contractors.

"We offered this to many (contractors), we offer them a lot (of work areas), later if we are interested, then we will auction the areas off. If no one is interested, the auction is useless, a waste of time and energy," he said.

During the last "roadshow" event, the government offered the opportunity to invest in seven oil and gas working areas. But Djoko was reluctant to specify the work areas.

He added, there were two or three oil/gas blocks that seemed to attract oil and gas contractors.

According to Djoko, efforts to offer the oil and gas blocks before the auction were responded to positively by foreign businesses.

However, he admitted that the decision to invest in the oil and gas sector involves time and commitment, especially if the business requires head office approval for investment activities.

"Some companies need time to study. So before the auction, we have proactively conduct 'roadshows' to evaluate the responses," he said.