Riau to continue fight over revenue from Natuna gas sales

The Riau administration will continue its struggle to obtain part of the revenue from the sales of gas from three offshore fields in Natuna islands, which is administratively part of the province.

?Although the central government insist that Riau has no rights over revenue from the gas in Natuna, we?ll continue to fight for it,? said Tengku Amir Sulaiman, head of the provincial special team tasked to win the Natuna gas revenue, on Wednesday.

The Riau administration has long demanded for part of the the central government revenue from the Natuna offshore gas fields. But the central government rejected this on the basis of existing regulation which stipulates that any offshore oil and gas fields located 12 miles from the beach is fully under the control of the central government.

Natuna islands is located in South China Sea.

There are three oil and gas fields offshore Natuna islands at present which are operated by US oil and gas firm Conoco Inc, Premier Oil, and Gulf Indonesia Resource. Natural gas from the fields will be sold to Malaysia and Singapore through an undersea pipeline network under a long-term contract agreement. The channeling of gas to the two countries will start in 2003.(*)