"Lion has received expressions of interest from several other parties regarding purchasing the Bula oilfields, but Lion will now review the assets and advise the market shortly whether it still proposes to sell or alternatively proposes to retain and add value to Bula by increasing oil production,” the company said in a statement.

Bula is a producing but mature oil field on the island of Seram, Indonesia. Lion subsidiary Kalrez Petroleum (Seram) Limited (KPS) acquired a 100% interest in the Bula field in 1999 through the purchase of all the shares in Santos Petroleum (Seram) Limited. Lion intended to sell the stake for about US$4.35 million (A$5.65 million).

Lion had intended to use the proceeds from the Bula sale to buy into the Main Pass-59 (MP-59), a producing oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. But it pulled out of this deal at the end of December without explaining the reasons for its withdrawal.