Only 24 oil and gas vessels are foreign-flagged: Govt

Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Evita Herawati Legowo, said that the number of foreign-flagged vessels used in the country's oil and gas sector has decreased from 56 in 2010 to 24 this year.

Meanwhile, the number of Indonesian-flagged vessels used in the sector has risen to 582 this year, up from 500 last year.

Evita attributed the increase to the impact of the implementation of cabotage policy, which has boosted the number of national fleet by 64.6 percent since 2005 to 3,904 vessels.

Foreign--flagged vessels are still needed, particularly for oil and gas offshore operations, because national shipowners were still unable to provide certain types of vessels, Evita said.

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi hoped the permission for foreign vessels to still operate in Indonesian waters would challenge national operators to produce the required vessels. (romel)