House not to deliberate oil and gas bill this year

The oil and gas bill is not included in the House of Representatives' list of bills that will be deliberated during its second working session from October through December 2000, according to the head of the House's Commission VIII Irwan Prayitno.

"Actually, the House's Commission VIII has budgeted the oil and gas bill to be deliberated this October, this year," Irwan told journalists after attending Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri's speech on 2001 budget before the House's plenary session on Monday.

The oil and gas bill is one of the bills that the IMF has required to be prioritized by the government.

He noted that the House would likely deliberate the bill nearly next year.

He contended that the bill had been reviewed by experts in the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Affairs, and handed over to the state secretariat to get President Abdurrahman Wahid's approval before the bill is being sent to the House for deliberation.

Irwan, however, expressed his optimism that the new bill that was once rejected by the House would be a lot better when it reached the House for deliberation.

He said he understood the delay in the part of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in completing the bill because of changes in the structure of the ministry and also changes of its ministers, from Kuntoro Mangkusubroto to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then to Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Irwan noted that Purnomo knew more about energy businesses than his predecessors, both Kuntoro and Susilo Bambang. Therefore, Purnomo fine-tuned again the bill when he was installed as minister at the end of August.

"Once again, Purnomo knows well about oil and gas, so maybe he has new ideas that must be incorporated in the bill to make it better. He knows well the substance about oil and gas. We never doubt it," he said. (*)