Nine PSCs have yet to pay ASR funds
Tuesday, February 12 2013 - 01:30 AM WIB
Nine oil and gas production sharing contractors (PSCs) operating in the country have yet to pay the so-called abandonment and site restoration (ASR) funds, upstream authority SKK Migas said.
Akhmad Syakhroza, Deputy for Finance Control at SKK Migas, said that the nine PSCs included Chevron Indonesia Company with working area in West Pasir (East Kalimantan), Chevron Pacific Indonesia in Kuantan, Chevron Pacific Indonesia in Siak, Chonocophillips Indonesia with working area in Natuna Block B, Exxonmobil Oil Indonesia in Block B (North Sumatra), Exxonmobil Oil Indonesia in NSO block, INPEX in Attaka (East Kalimantan), JOA-Conocophillips in South Jambi, and Mobil Cepu in Cepu block.
The ASR funds will be used to among others finance restoration work after the PSCs abandon their concessions. While it is not mandated under the contract, the funds are required as ruled by a 2010 regulation issued by the oil and gas upstream authority.
According to Akhmad, last year the government received about US$1.7 billion worth of ASR funds allocated by PSCs operating 47 working areas.
Akhmad said that initially there were 26 PSCs who declined to pay the ASR funds, the SKK Migas has managed to convince the contractors to pay the funds.
He warned that PSCs failing to pay the required funds may risk their contracts to be not extended by the government.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak