Difficult-to-reach resources provide market opportunity

Indonesia's challenging task of further exploiting its aging oil and gas fields and facilitating exploration in new reserves, which are located in remote and technically challenging areas, gives Chinese oil and gas companies a good chance to further tap the market potential, analysts said.

"Indonesia's rich gas resources have been very attractive to Chinese firms including China National Petroleum Corp, the country's biggest oil producer," said Li Li, energy research director at energy consulting firm ICIS China.

"However, the country's natural gas markets currently face substantial challenges as existing gas fields age, upstream output declines and investment falls," despite" fast rising gas demand driven by growing consumption from the power and industrial sectors."