Govt establishes team to evaluate oil and gas potentials

The government will soon establish a special team to review the country's oil and gas potential resources as part of the efforts to lure more investors into the sector, Kompas reported on Saturday.

Edy Hermantoro, the Director for Upstream Oil and Gas Development at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said in Jakarta on Friday that the team would officially begin their activities next month.

He said that the team would work under the office of the directorate of oil and gas development. According to him, the existing oil and gas institutions such as the Geology Body, oil and gas upstream sector regulator BPMIGAS, and the Lemuigas research and development center would still carry out their respective surveys. ?But the results should be reported to his office.

Edy said that the establishment of the team was needed to provide more accurate data on the country's oil and gas reserves. The lack of interests in the part of investors in the recent oil and gas auctions is partly due to the lack of such data.

The government had offered at least 30 oil and gas blocks this year, but only three of them attracted investors. (*)