London-based Serica Energy Plc (London Aim; Toronto Venture: SQZ) has acquired an additional 25.5% working interest in the Kutai production-sharing contract in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, from its partner Ephindo Kutai Ltd. for an undisclosed price.

Serica is operator and now holds a 78% interest, with Ephindo holding the remainder. The contract was awarded to Serica and Ephindo in January 2007 and covers some 4,700 square kilometers in the Mahakam Delta, mainly offshore.

The Kutai PSC is adjacent to the Mahakam PSC operated by France-based Total (NYSE: TOT) with total daily production of around 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas and 90,000 barrels of oil and condensate.

Serica chief executive Paul Ellis said, "The Kutai Block lies in the heart of a proven and prolific petroleum-producing province and we are delighted to have increased our stake. There is a large amount of existing modern 3-D seismic data on the block and we are currently analyzing, reprocessing and interpreting the data in order to determine drilling locations for our first exploration campaign in the Mahakam Delta."

Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, (NYSE, Toronto: TLM) has acquired a 3.06% interest in the Tangguh LNG project in West Papua, Indonesia, from Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) for US$212 million. The project consists of a number of offshore gas wells, production facilities, pipelines and LNG plant facilities with a capacity of 7.6 million tons per year.