Indonesia's Pertamina, Malaysia's Petronas aim to take over Shell's Masela stake

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s state energy company Pertamina and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) plan to jointly take over Shell’s participating interest in the Masela gas project, Indonesia’s energy minister said on Monday.

Shell currently has 35% of the shares in the project and authorities are keen for the companies to complete the deal to move the project forward after years of delay.

“They are both doing the negotiation,” the minister, Arifin Tasrif, told Reuters, referring to Pertamina and Petronas.

“They have to finalise what kind of joint scheme they are preparing,” he said on the sidelines of an Energy Asia conference. (Reporting by Emily Chow, Writing by Fransiska Nangoy Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Robert Birsel)