Six regulations on oil and gas to be issued in October

The government is expected to issue six regulations in October this year to support the implementation of the new Oil and Gas Law, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

M. Teguh Pamudji, the head of the legal division of the ministry?s oil and gas directorate, said in Balikpapan over the weekend that the six regulations would regulate non-oil tax in oil and gas sectors, the transfer of Pertamina?s operation, the establishment of the implementation body for upstream operation, the regulatory body, upstream operation and downstream operation.

"The issuance of the new law will mark the enforcement of the new Oil and Gas Law," he was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia. He added that the other four-implementation regulations were still prepared by the government.

The law was endorsed by the House of Representatives in October last year but its enforcement still needed implementation regulations from the government. The law will mainly open up the country?s oil and gas sectors both in the upstream and downstream operations to free market competition. Pertamina will as a consequence lose the exclusive rights it has enjoyed for years.(*)