Minister to issue new regulation to bring down gas price

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan is drafting a new regulation that aims to help bring down price of gas for consumers among others by limiting the margins of traders.

This was said by Director General of Oil and Gas at the ministry IGN Wiratmaja Puja in a statement on Friday.

He said that currently there is wide gap in the price of gas at the upstream producer and traders in the downstream side of the industry. He pointed out as an example that gas price in the upstream side was only US$6 per mmbtu, while at the consumers level price could reach as high as $14 per mmbtu. ?The distance is only about 20 km. So this means there are multiple layers of transaction. One layer took profit, another also took profit. Going forward, we?ll regulate their (traders) margin,? he said in the statement, adding that the margin may be limited at seven percent.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak