Four oil, gas projects added to government priority list

Four oil and gas projects have been added to the government?s list of ?priority infrastructure projects,? entitling them to certain advantages in a bid to help speed up development process.

Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, IGN Wiratmaja Pudja said in a statement obtained Friday that the four projects include the Abadi gas field project at the Masela block in Maluku Province, the Jambaran-Tiung Biru gas field project in East Java, the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) project in East Kalimantan, and the Tangguh LNG Train 3 project in Papua.

He said that previously, there were only three oil and gas projects included in the priority list, namely the Bontang oil refinery project in East Kalimantan, Tuban oil refinery project in East Java, and the Cilacap refinery expansion project in Central Java.

Wiratmaja said that the priority list now contains 37 projects, including seven oil and gas projects, which are entitled to certain advantages such as speedy permitting and land acquisition processes as the government wants to accelerate their development.

?A presidential regulation has been issued (for the priority projects). There will be certain advantages. For example, in terms of land acquisition, permit from local governments, etc,? he said in the statement, issued following a meeting at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy discussing progress of the priority projects.

Wiratmadja said that many projects often face problems related to land acquisition and lengthy bureaucracy in getting permits from local administrations.

He added that the Committee for the Acceleration of Priority Infrastructure Projects at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy will also help resolve any bottleneck suffered by the priority projects.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak