House commision opposes Cepu's negotiation team
Thursday, June 9 2005 - 02:23 AM WIB
The opposition was expressed during a hearing between the House commission and the board of directors of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina on Wednesday.
The House commission's chairman Sonny Keraf said that the commission would not accept any deal made by the negotiation team because of strong government interevention in the negotiation process.
"The negotiation should be conducted directly by Pertamina as the owner of the oil block and ExxonMobil, without any intervention from the government," he said.
Meanwhile, other commission member Alvin Lie said that the team, which was established at the initiative of Coordinating Minister for Economy Aburizal Bakrie, had failed to fight for the interest of the field's owner Pertamina in its negotiation with ExxonMobil.
"We will therefore summon the coordinating minister for clarification," he said.
Pertamina's president director Widya Purnama said that the state-owned oil company would not sign any agreement made by the negotiation team if its demand was not accepted by ExxonMobil.
He also expressed his disappointment of the composition of the team which comprises of Pertamina's chief commissioner Martiono; Pertamina's commissioner Roes Ariwijaya; expert staff of the state minister for state enterprises Lin CheWei; Pertamina's commissioners Umar Said, and IIn Takhyan; Pertamina's vice president Mustiko Saleh; senior official at the ministry of finance Sahala L.; and M. Ikhsan, expert staff of the coordinating minister of economy; and Rizal Mallarangeng.
Widya said that the team did not fully represent the management of the state-owned oil company.
ExxonMobil which operates the Cepu oil block under a technical contract with Pertamina has proposed for an earlier extension of its contract to operate the oil block which will end in 2010. But Pertamina opposes the proposal unless the American oil giant agrees to pay financial compensation and other new conditions.
Commenting on the statement made by the House member, Umar Said, a member of the negotiation team, said that the involvement of the government in the negotiation process was meant to help Pertamina.
"Pertamina has negotiated directly with ExxonMobil for almost four years, but no positive results have been made," he said, adding that the government established the team because the negotiation carried out by Pertamina did not work as expected. (dino)