Indonesian oil hunt for Exxon

Indonesian state oil firm Pertamina and US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp plan to sign a long-awaited deal on developing the Cepu oil block this week, the government said today.

The government had said it wanted to seal the $2-billion deal by September 25, closing a four-year saga that has clouded the future of the project, which has up to half-a-billion barrels of reserves that could add 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Indonesia’s declining output.