Govt decrees on oil and gas to be issued within three months

Government decrees for following up on the new oil and gas law are expected to be issued no later than three months after it has been ratified by the President, according to an official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

?Normally, such decrees are issued no later than three months after the ratification of the law concerned, ? T.A. Nurwinakun, head of the ministry?s law affairs and public relations office, told Petromindo.com on Thursday.

But he was not clear when the President would ratify the oil and gas law which had been approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Nurwinakun said the government had yet to decide whether five decrees would be needed for implementing the law, saying that related government officials had yet to decide on it.

?There could be less than five decrees. But nobody is sure about it,? he said.

Oil and gas director general Rachmat Sudibyo said on Wednesday that the government was preparing five decrees for implementing the oil and gas law. They deal with the upstream businesses of the oil and gas industry; the transition of state oil and gas Pertamina to a limited liability company; the executive body which will take over from Pertamina as supervisor of the country?s oil and gas industry; and the oil and gas industry regulatory body, according to the official. (godang)