Govt urges contractors to use local rigs

By Peni Pedriawan

The Indonesian government has urged all contractors of the production sharing contracts to use the locally-made rigs for drillings in their oil, gas or coal bed methane (CBM) projects.

?Our local industry is capable to produce the rigs. We have to support them by using their rig products,? Energy and Mineral Resources Vice Minister Susilo Siswoutomo said in a meeting on the rig use and development, which was also attended by other officials from the ministry and other ministries as well as representatives from companies concerned, in Jakarta, last Friday.

According to him, up to certain scale and capacity the local industries are capable to produce the rigs, but so far they are still hurdled by the problems of financing and lack of support for development.

?I?m not happy to see that the CBM rigs are still imported, while we can actually make them locally. We have to establish a synergy among the stakeholders in order to meet such need here,? he said.

Susilo, however, asked the local rig builders to always meet the technical standards and safety of the rigs based on prevailing regulations.

Currently, the local rig makers have become capable of producing rigs with capacity of below 1,500 HP. The cost of building rigs below 1,500 HP is estimated at about US$ 40 million per unit.

Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb