Ministry extends Exploration Committee?s tenure
Wednesday, January 27 2016 - 02:33 PM WIB
Aside from oil and gas resources, the agency is also tasked now to identify geothermal, coal and mineral resources in Indonesia, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement on Wednesday.
Andang Bachtiar keeps his position as the leader of the agency.
?The government has decided to extend the tenure of the National Exploration Committee for one more year with an expanded task. Aside from oil and gas, it will also handle geothermal, coal and minerals,? Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said said on Tuesday, after holding a meeting with the Committee.
Among the recommendations by the Committee that have been implemented are the implementation of block basis in PSC and changes in the development scheme of non-conventional blocks. Now, the Committee is tasked with monitoring oil and gas research activities, ensuring that the researches will produce new oil and gas blocks, monitoring oil and gas reserves that it has identified, monitoring the kick-off of East Natuna block, monitoring the implementation of its recommendation for oil and gas data transparency and management system, the ministry said in a statement.
KEN is also tasked with continuing evaluation on the exploration potentials of expiring blocks.
Meanwhile, Andang said the government has also added new members to the Committee, bringing its membership to 76 from 47. ?The number of members has expanded to 76 thanks to the entry of people who have expertise in geothermal, coal and minerals,? he said.
KEN was established on June 12, 2015 with an initial working period of one year. KEN?s mission is to increase oil and gas Reserve Replacement Ratio (RRR) to above 75 percent within five years by finding new reserves and accelerating the discovery of reserves from 6-10 years to 3-5 years after block award.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon