PARIS, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- French utility giant GDF Suez said it completed the acquisition of a 45 percent stake from Italy's Eni for offshore exploration contracts in Indonesia.
Eni will maintain its 55 percent stake as the operator of the Muara Bakau offshore field in Indonesia.
GDF Suez and Eni agreed to an asset swap in 2008 in a deal that includes assets in the United Kingdom, the Gulf of Mexico, Egypt and Indonesia.
The Muara Bakau move represents a push into the Asia-Pacific market for GDF Suez, which acquired a 60 percent stake in three Australian gas fields in August 2008.
The contract for Muara Bakau covers an area of 315 square miles in the waters near the eastern shore of Kalimantan, Indonesia, in the Kutei basin. Water depths for the contract area range from 650 to 3,200 feet.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says Indonesia holds as much as 4.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent and more than 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with the majority of that held in offshore reserves.
Initial exploration campaigns were conducted in the region in March 2009.
