Indonesia on Saturday threatened to take over the settlement of a dispute in Cepu oil and gas field in East Java province, which involves state oil firm Pertamina and U.S.-based oil company Exxon Mobile, if they could not reach an agreement in a week.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla made the statement in his speech during his visit to the Cepu field.

"President has asked to settle this problem in one week," said Kalla.

He said that the government asked the Ministry of Mines and Energy Resources and the Ministry of Enterprises to make preparation for taking over the settlement of the case.

"So now two ministers prepare for a concept, if within one week it can not be addressed, all stakeholders will take over the case and immediately carry out a meeting," said Kalla.

He noted that the problem now was about who would lead the block.

"We have discussed the equality of involvement," he said.

Pertamina and the Exxon Mobil have been in a row of the operatorships of the block.

Pertamina has said that it insists to be the first five years operator of the block, but Exxon rejects the demand.

The block, which is one of the Exxon's ten biggest undeveloped oil finds, is targeted to produce about 180,000 barrels of oil per day and can increase the country's production by 20 percent.

On the same occasion, Vice Director of Pertamina Mustiko Saleh said that based on the history, Pertamina had a right to operate the field.

Exxon Mobil and Pertamina have decided to establish a joint committee to decide the operatorships of the 2-billion U.S. dollar Cepu oil block in East Java province, according to mines and energy minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Source: Xinhua