SKK Migas: Govt receives $837m of ASR funds

By Febry Silaban

Upstream authority SKK Migas said that the government has received about US$837 million worth of the so-called Abandonment and Site Restoration (ASR) funds allocated by production sharing contractors (PSCs) operating in the country.

?Until June 30, 2016, the placement of ASR funds at the state-owned banks has reached $837 million, up 502 percent from 2010,? Taslim Z. Yunus, SKK Migas' Head of Program and Reporting, who is also acting spokesman of the upstream authority, said in Bandung, on Tuesday.

He said that the largest amount of ASR funds worth $294 million were placed with BNI, or 35 percent of total ASR funds, BRI $268.9 million (32.14 percent) and Bank Mandiri $273.8 million (32.72 percent).

PSC holders are required to place their ASR funds at the state owned banks. 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.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak