Indonesia, faced with dwindling oil reserves and the prospect of becoming a net crude importer by the end of the decade, said  several oil giants were interested in exploring for oil and gas in the country.

The companies include ExxonMobil Corp, France’s Total SA and Caltex, a unit of ChevronTexaco Corp.
Indonesia, Asia’s only Opec member, has 20 oil and gas blocks open for tender, aiming to boost reserves and production as part of a long-term plan to open 50 oil and gas areas over the next five years.
“There are some companies, such as Exxon, Caltex, Total and Amerada Hess,” R. Priyono, the head of the Acreage Management Division of the Indonesian Directorate General of Oil and Gas, said at an oil and gas exhibition in Melbourne.
Others include Malaysia’s Petronas and US oil major ConocoPhillips, he said.
The companies were particularly keen on three blocks, designated as North East Madura III, IV and V, located off the north east shore of Madura island, East Java, about 850 km east of Jakarta.
Priyono did not give reserve estimates for the three blocks but said they might be as large as the Cepu block. Indonesia has said it expected to develop oil reserves of around 500 million barrels in the Banyu Urip field in the Cepu block, while ExxonMobil put the figure at half that.
State oil firm Pertamina said this month that ExxonMobil had concluded negotiations on the Cepu block - in which the US oil giant said it had spent $450 million but had not yet started commercial production - and were awaiting government approval.
Indonesia, which signed 15 oil contracts in 2003, had said it expected spending by foreign firms in the oil and gas sector to rise 55 per cent to $7 billion this year.
The country has had a quota of 1.218 million barrels per day (bpd) from Opec since April 1 - not including condensate - but has been producing below that limit.
Its crude oil production fell to 970,000 bpd in March from 986,000 bpd in February due to ageing wells. Condensate output rose 4.1 per cent to 144,750 bpd in March from 139,000 bpd in February.
The government signed a production-sharing contract for two neighbouring North East Madura blocks late last year.
A consortium of Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) and PetroVietnam took North East Madura I, while the North East Madura II block deal was signed with a consortium of KNOC, PetroVietnam and SK Corp.