Government to open oil and gas data

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) hopes to complete this year a new ministerial regulation that would allow it to open oil and gas data such as seismic data as part of efforts to help trigger the finding of new major oil and gas reserves in the country.

Director General of Oil and Gas at the ministry, IGN Wiratmaja Puja said in a statement Monday that Indonesia wants to follow the policy in Norway, which has opened its oil and gas data, allowing geologists around the world to examine the country?s oil and gas potential, and over the past five years, Norway has managed to make new major oil and gas findings.

Wiratmaja said that Indonesia has not been able to find any major findings during the past 15 years. ?We?re now the ministerial regulation on open data. People from around the world will be allowed to look into our data. If they?re interested, they can come to Indonesia to make further studies, participate in tender, etc,? he said.

Under the current condition, investors must come to Indonesia and pay a fee to look into the country?s oil and gas data, making the investment climate in the industry to be less attractive. According to geologists, Indonesia has huge oil and gas potential among others in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Papua and the deep sea in Maluku.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak