National firms to be given priority in oil, gas acquisition: Jero

By Godang Sitompul

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik, who also heads the SKSP Migas, the caretaker upstream oil and gas regulator, said that national oil and gas companies will be given priority to take over oil and gas blocks whose contracts are about to expire.

Jero, however, warned the smaller or new players to team up with the bigger foreign players due to the high risk in oil and gas projects. He advised to let the large foreign oil and gas companies assume the greater risk.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Indonesian Oil Engineers Association (IATMI) symposium, he said that the financial losses would be quite large of up to US$100 million if a drilling work ends up in dry hole.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak