Govt submits oil and gas bill to House

The government submitted on Tuesday the oil and gas draft bill to the House of Representatives for deliberations.

"We submitted the bill today after it was approved by the Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri," Minister of Energy and Mineral Resource Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the visit to gas stations to examine impacts of fuel price increases.

The bill, which will replace the Oil and Gas Law No. 8/1971 on state oil and gas company Pertamina, aims at liberalizing the country's oil and gas industry and stripping Pertamina of its decades-long monopoly rights on the country's oil and gas industry. (godang)