BPMIGAS to push for increased exploration spending

Oil, gas contractors will gradually be required to increase their exploration budget to reach ideal level of 15-20 percent of overall budget, a senior official with upstream oil, gas authority BPMIGAS said on Wednesday as quoted by media.

Vice-Chairman Hardiono said that currently contractors allocate only 5 percent of overall budget to exploration.

?In the future, BPMIGAS will require increased exploration budget as condition for Work Programme and Budget approval,? he said, adding that exploration activities in Indonesia had been on the declining mode due in the past few years to uncertainties in regulations such as cost recovery capping which cause contractors to be reluctant to spend money on exploration.

Hardiono said contractors? reluctance has caused decline in oil, gas discoveries in Indonesia in the past few years. (*)