Malaysia's state oil and gas company Petronas has resigned from a consortium exploring Indonesia's East Natuna gas project, Asia's biggest untapped gas reserve, Indonesia's state oil and gas company Pertamina said today.

"We received confirmation from our upstream director Muhammad Husen that Petronas has backed down as our partner in East Natuna," Pertamina spokeswoman Wianda Pusponegoro said to Reuters.

Pusponegoro declined to give further details or a reason for the resignation and there was no immediate comment from Petronas.

In December 2010, Pertamina signed agreements with Exxon Mobil, Total and Petronas as partners to develop the Natuna gas field.

The project is expected to cost Pertamina and its partners between $20 billion to $40 billion, depending on the gas delivery and production methods.

East Natuna has approximately 46 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and contains 71 percent carbon dioxide.

It is considered the biggest untapped gas reserve in Asia.

- Reuters