Ministry inviting private surveyors

In order to secure deeper and wider data on oil and gas upstream sector, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is allowing PSC cooperation with private survey companies especially for places that have never been surveyed since 1995.

Director General of Oil and Gas Edy Hermantoro during a seminar organized by the Ministry?s Geology Agency in Jakarta on Wednesday said that such cooperation has been warmly welcomed by the companies.

?By teaming up with PSC Holders, those companies can carry out the surveys and will already have secured the permission to use the data. The data will still belong to the government, but they can utilize it,? said Edy in a statement.

Based on the Ministry?s data, such surveys may be required on 10,000 to 20,000 sqkm of area every year.

Edy added that such cooperation was important considering the budget constraint on the part of government to conduct such surveys by itself. Annual budget allocation for preliminary survey only amounts to Rp50 billion.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana