ITB says future oil and gas law should ban concession trading
Wednesday, February 28 2001 - 05:30 AM WIB
The state Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) said on Tuesday the future oil and gas law should categorically bar investors from transferring its oil and gas rights to other investors.
The prestigious university, in a statement read by lecturer Arsegianto during a closed meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission VIII for energy and mineral resources, environment, science and technology, said the future oil and gas law should ban the practice to prevent what it called "concession trading" among investors.
The concession trading would make oil and gas contracts "speculation and brokerage commodities", Arsegianto said in the statement, which was made available to Petromindo.Com.
The meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, the UPN Veteran university in Yogyakarta, the Islamic University of Riau, was held as part of the House's efforts to collect inputs from the public for the deliberation of the oil and gas bill proposed by the government.
Arsegianto also called on the House to maintain the current contract system, including its rigid fiscal terms, in the future oil and gas law.
He said the fiscal terms in the country's oil and gas contracts were relatively stricter than those applied in other countries, including Australia.
But, he said the fact that almost all major oil companies had been operating in the country for 35 years indicated that they were satisfied with the contract system, including its rigid fiscal terms.
"Don't rock the boat.... The existing good contract system should be kept in place," Arsegianto said.
Elsewhere, Arsegianto called on the House to drop the clause in the government-proposed bill which bans people to conduct general survey on the country's oil and gas resources without permits from the government.
He said the clause was unacceptable because it would ban academics or students to conduct geological survey for scientific purposes.
The future law should encourage rather than discourage scientists to conduct study on the country's oil and gas richness, he said. (Epin)