Pertamina says CNPC pulls out as potential Natuna partner

JAKARTA, June 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia's state oil and gas firm Pertamina said on Wednesday that Chinese state oil firm CNPC has withdrawn from its bid to be a potential partner for the giant $40 billion Natuna natural gas project.

The government is still working out terms and condition for the Natuna project before it decides on the partner for the project.

In 2008, it named eight potential partners: Petronas [PETR.UL], Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote), Chevron (CVX.N: Quote), Total (TOTF.PA: Quote), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote), Statoil (STL.OL: Quote), Eni (ENI.MI: Quote), and CNPC, which is the parent of PetroChina (601857.SS: Quote).

"Yes, CNPC has pulled out as a potential partner. I don't know the reason," Pertamina's president director, Karen Agustiawan, told reporters.

The Natuna D-Alpha block has about 222 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of which 46 tcf is thought to be commercially recoverable.

The Natuna block is about 1,100 kilometres (700 miles) north of Jakarta and 200 km east of the West Natuna fields, which feeds gas to Singapore and accounts for about a quarter of Indonesia's total commercially recoverable gas reserves of 182 tcf. (Reporting by Muklis Ali; Editing by Sara Webb)