Central govt seeks to keep geothermal management
Friday, June 8 2001 - 05:37 AM WIB
The management of the country?s geothermal industry will remain at the central government, under the draft mining law proposed by the ministry of energy and mineral resources to the President.
?The rights held by the government in managing general mining include ? the management of geothermal and radioactive development,? the draft law made available to Petromindo.Com, said.
The draft law was submitted last week to the state secretariat for a final approval from the President before being delivered by the ministry to the House of Representatives for deliberations.
The draft law however does not make clear if the central government will also hold the right to license geothermal projects.
In the past, the licensing right was held by state oil and gas company Pertamina but President Abdurrahman Wahid issued the presidential decree No. 76/2000 on May 31 last year to take away the right from Pertamina. .
The presidential decree states that the regional government heads hold the right of licensing geothermal development in their respective areas by companies, cooperatives for power production for their own use. But, it does not specify who holds the right of licensing geothermal development for power production for the public.
The draft mining further says that geothermal contractors are only allowed to apply for a maximum of 200,000 hectares area for general survey and explorations.
They have to relinquish most of the areas to the government during explorations so that at the start of production they will only hold a maximum of 40,000 hectares contract area.
Under the draft law, all mining contractors, including geothermal contractors, have the right to conduct general survey for two years, followed by three years of explorations, two years of feasibility study and three years of construction. They could extend the exploration period for two years.
The contractors are then allowed to undertake their geothermal operation for 20 years but the operation could be extended for five years every time. (Bodega)