Exclusive--Govt prepares decree on regions' participation on oil development
Saturday, January 6 2001 - 05:00 AM WIB
The government was preparing a presidential decree on the participation of the regions in the development of oil and gas fields, a senior official of the ministry of energy and mineral resources said Friday.
Director general of oil and gas Rachmat Sudibyo said the presidential decree would provide guidelines to decide in case regional administrations were interested in developing the oil and gas fields, which are nearing the end of their contractual periods.
"The bottomline of the decree is that the regions will be given priority to develop such oil and gas fields. If the regions says they are unable or not attracted (to develop the fields), the fields will be offered to state owned companies or private companies," Rachmat told Petromindo.Com on the sidelines of the Idul Fitri celebration gathering in the West Java province's capital of Bandung.
He said the presidential decree aimed to prevent disputes like the current one concerning the Coastal Plains Pekanbaru oil field in Riau.
The Riau provincial administration is now struggling to hold the majority shares in the joint venture with state oil and gas company Pertamina to develop the oil field, after the contract on the field held by American oil and gas company PT Caltex Indonesia expires in August this year.
According to Rachmat, the drafting of the decree by the ministry has been completed and the draft decree has been sent to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri for approval. (godang/epin)