Licensing authority for oil and gas supporting industries given to local administrations
Thursday, December 7 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The central government, in this case the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, has decided to hand over the licensing authority for oil and gas supporting industries to local administrations.
According to the director of exploration and production at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas at the ministry, Kardaya Warnika, the transfer of authority would be given in line with the implementation of regional autonomy starting January 2001.
"Law No. 22/1999 (on regional autonomy) stipulates that licensing authority for the oil and gas activities including exploration, exploitation and processing activities still lies with the central government. However, the licensing for supporting businesses could be transferred to local administration," Kardaya said in Jakarta on Wednesday morning (Dec. 6).
For the transfer of the licensing authority, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro issued in early November a decree No. 1454 K/30/MEM/2000 on the guidelines for the governmental affairs on the oil and gas sector.
The decree contained licensing authorities for a number of supporting businesses in the oil and gas sector that would be transferred to local administrations, including in giving approval in the use of mining concession or the working areas of contractors for activities outside oil and gas activities. The decree also granted to local administration the authority in giving recommendation on the use of forest areas for oil and gas activities and also the authority to license the establishment of warehouses for explosive materials on land and also offshore of up to 12 miles from the shore.
There are some more licensing authorities to be given to local administrations, Kardaya said.
"So, licenses for those business activities would not anymore be issued by the central government, but by local administrations, although they still need recommendations from the director general of oil and gas," Kardaya added. (*)