BPMIGAS recommends terminating nine oil, gas contractors

Upstream oil, gas regulator BPMIGAS said on Wednesday that it would recommend the termination of contracts awarded to nine production-sharing contractors due to failure in fulfilling their commitments, Bisnis Indonesia reported Thursday.

The nine contractors failed to fulfill their obligations, such as submitting work program & budget (WP&B) and carrying out exploration in the first three years, BPMIGAS chairman R. Priyono said.

"As a matter of fact, around 10 percent of the country's 232 contractors were not performing well. Of the 10 percent, nine contractors are the worst and would not survive," he said.

He refused to name the nine, while only saying most of them were local companies which got their contracts between 5 and 6 years ago with concessions located onshore.(*)