Rizal Ramli summons director general, while belittling minister

By Febry Silaban

Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli said he would summon Director General of Oil and Gas IGN Wiratmaja for a meeting next week to discuss on how to cut the government?s oil and gas production share.

He said he would also invite Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said to the meeting but he is convinced Sudirman will not come.

?I often summoned him (Minister Sudirman) into a meeting but he has never came,? Rizal said during a seminar in Jakarta, adding he has now concluded that Sudirman knows nothing about the oil and gas industry.

?For me, the director generals are more important, because they understand the issues better than the minister,? he said.

The ministry of energy and mineral resources is technically under the coordination of Rizal?s office.

The topic that will be discussed during the meeting is about the government?s production share. Under the current PSC system, the oil production is split between the government and contractors in the ratio of 85:15 and the gas production 70:30 with the government taking the largest portion.

?We must be flexible. If the split is now 85:15, why not changing it into 80:20,? Rizal said.

Rizal is apparently not aware that the ministry already implemented what he is now proposing. In early September, as reported by this portal, Director for the Management of Upstream Activities at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas Djoko Siswanto said the ministry offers contractors a larger production share in the blocks auctioned this year. The contractors? share proposed by the ministry is even larger than the ones proposed by Rizal -- namely 30-35 percent for oil and 35-40 percent for gas depending on the location and characteristics of the block.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon