Martiono: Oil and gas bill needs to be completed soon

Disagreement among Pertamina, the government and the House of Representatives has caused the delay in the drafting of the oil and gas bill. If they continue with their position and maintain their disagreement over the role of Pertamina, the bill will never be completed, according to former Pertamina president Martiono Hadianto.

Therefore, Martiono called on all parties concerned to intensify their talks to seek common grounds among them.

Martiono said if Pertamina's roles were reduced, and its monopoly over oil and gas sector was abolished, then it would have to compete with other oil companies operating in Indonesia. And this would bring many consequences, especially for consumers and local businesses.

If the government and the House agreed to abolish Pertamina's monopoly rights, they must ensure that domestic fuel prices would not be higher than the current level because of no more subsidy from the government.

"The government must realize that the people's purchasing power now is still weak," he said.

Besides, Martiono said, the government must set its own goal whether it wants to have an international-level oil company. If so, how it should achieve that target. But, he said, it would need a lot of funding to create such a company. And the government needs to think how to get the funding.

"Considering our financial burdens, will we again borrow offshore loans? If there is no clarity about those points, the bill will never be completed," he said.

Earlier, the secretary general of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Djoko Darmono, said that the oil and gas bill had already been submitted to the state secretary and would be submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation after the People's Consultative Assembly's annual session that ended last week. (*)