Govt decree on downstream Regulating Body expected to be signed this month

President Megawati Soekarnoputri is expected to sign this month the government decree on the formation of the so-called Regulating Body which holds the highest authority in the country?s downstream oil and gas industry, a government spokesman told Petromindo.com on Friday.

TA Nur Winakun, the spokesman of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said an inter-ministerial team tasked with drafting the decree was completing its work, and that only the minister of finance and the head of the civil servants administration agency had yet to sign the draft before it goes to the President?s office.

According to the draft decree, the Regulating Body will have nine commissions to deal with fuel production, fuel distribution, and the transmitting of natural gas through pipelines in the downstream sector, Winakun said.

The formation of the Regulating Body is stipulated in existing oil and gas law which became effective late last year. The law dictates that the regulatory body be formed before the end of 2002.

In keeping with the law, the government in July formed the so-called Implementing Body (BP-Migas) which holds the highest authority over the country?s upstream oil and gas sector.

The law stripped state oil and gas firm Pertamina of its decades long monopoly over the country?s upstream and downstream sectors, thus making the firm an ordinary limited liability company. (godang)