Govt hopes to soon deliberate on amendment to oil and gas law

The government expects to soon meet with the House of Representatives to deliberate on the amendment to the oil and gas law so that the draft of the new law will have been finished by the end of this year.

This was said by Director General of Oil and Gas IGN Wiratmaja on Wednesday.

?We want the government to hold the mineral right, while special SOE holds the business right. Agencies such as BPMIGAS or SKK Migas has their feet in mineral right as well as business right,? Wiratmaja was quoted by the directorate general in a statement.

Meanwhile, on the downstream sector, the government plans to establish Natural Gas Buffer Agency which is tasked to create uniform prices for gas. At present, he said, prices of gas are varied depending on the locations. For instance, the price in Java is different from the ones in North Sumatra and eastern Indonesia.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon