MEMR to simplify 10 permits in oil, gas sector
Wednesday, February 11 2015 - 01:15 AM WIB
Acting Director General of Oil and Gas at the ministry I Gusti Nyoman Wiratmadja said the ministry was considering simplifying the issuance of 10 types of business permits.
The licensing process and issuance will be handled by the Investment Coordinating Board?s (BKPM) newly established one-stop services unit.
?Those 10 permits are basic permits in the upstream and downstream oil and gas sector, including permits previously handled by upstream authority SKK Migas. If we see good progress, we will let the BKPM licensing office also deal with many more permits,? Wiratmadja said as quoted by The Jakarta Post.
He declined to provide details of the 10 permits that will be handled by the BKPM.
According to Wiratmadja, there are currently around 50 permits directly related to oil and gas. In addition, there are also other 200 permits that cover cross-sector issues, including those related to the forestry and environment ministry, manpower ministry or local administrations.
Wiratmadja said the energy ministry was aiming to gradually transfer the processing of permits for oil and gas sector to the BKPM before the year end.
Earlier this year, the MEMR officially transferred the permitting process for investments related to the electricity sector to the BKPM. Under the new one-stop service, investors interested in investing in the electricity sector will only need to apply with the BKPM, where the energy ministry has assigned officers to process and verify all permits needed.
Meanwhile, the BKPM?s head Franky Sibarani said his office has not decided on whether to process the business permits for the oil and gas sector considering that it is still dealing with the workload related to processing business permits for the electricity sector.
?The most difficult thing now is to simplify the permits. The numbers are still high,? Franky said. Normally, investors keen on investing in the electricity sector need to secure around 52 permits.
The Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) president, Craig Stewart, was quoted by The Post as saying the oil and gas industry would welcome any move to simplify the permitting process in the sector.
?Like other industries, the oil and gas industry also sees lengthy business permit processing. We definitely support any efforts to improve the situation,? he said. ?However; until we see the details of how this will work and how it interfaces with SKK Migas, we cannot comment on the plan,? Stewart added. (*)