State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina said it wants to cooperate with Royal Dutch Shell to develop the giant gas block of Natuna D Alpha in Riau.

Shell has the technology needed to separate carbon dioxide from the gas, said Pertamina President Ari Hermanto Soemarno, who accompanied a Shell director Malcolm Brinded in a meeting with vice president Jusuf Kalla.
The block is estimated to have a reserve of 220 trillion cubic feet of gas but the gas has a high CO2 content of 70 per cent. The block was originally awarded to ExxonMobil but the US company failed to implement its contract which was terminated in January, 2007.