Indonesia calls for Pertamina role in Total block

JAKARTA, March 10 (Reuters) - Indonesia wants France's Total (TOTF.PA) to give state oil firm Pertamina a role in the Mahakam gas block off Borneo island before extending the contract, the country's energy minister said on Wednesday.

Total has previously said it wanted the Indonesian government to extend its operating contract in the Mahakam block, one of Indonesia's biggest gas fields, which is due to expire in 2017.

Total and Japan's Inpex (1605.T) each hold 50 percent in the block offshore East Kalimantan on Borneo, which supplies most of the gas for Indonesia's Bontang liquefied natural gas plant. "If the contract continues, we want Pertamina to play a role in the block...if not we are ready to run the block by ourselves after expiry," Energy Minister Darwin Saleh told reporters.

In theory, the oil and gas block could be returned to the state when the contract expires but an extension would be considered as long as it benefited the country, he said.

"We want Pertamina to participate in the Mahakam block before it expires and for Total to consider Indonesia when they negotiate business-to-business with Pertamina," Saleh said.

Officials from Total Indonesia could not immediately be reached for comment.

Pertamina's president director Karen Agustiawan has said previously the state company wanted to participate through a 15 percent stake in the Mahakam block before the block expired and wanted a majority stake after expiry in 2017.

However, another Pertamina official said on Wednesday that negotiations with Total over Mahakam block were slow because the French firm appeared to be cool about selling the stakes.

"Total seems to be reluctant to sell stakes in Mahakam because they don't want Pertamina to participate before the expiry," said the official, who declined to be named.

Pertamina has previously indicated it wants to expand its upstream activities to boost oil and gas production, and that it was looking at several potential oil and gas fields.

These include the Mahakam block, which is operated by a unit of Total and the Madura BD field in East Java, operated by Husky Energy Inc (HSE.TO) and China's CNOOC (0883.HK).

Some politicians in Southeast Asia's biggest economy have been making nationalistic noises about ownership and control of energy and mineral resources, particularly since elections last year.

(Reporting by Muklis Ali; Editing by Ed Davies)