Transfer of oil concession interest does not violate PSC: Purnomo
Tuesday, June 25 2002 - 03:02 AM WIB
"The practice will not change the stipulation in the PSC. Who ever the operator, it or they will be treated according to stipulation already stated in the contract," the minister told reporters on Monday in response to the transfer of the ownership or interest in the number of PSCs in recent months.
Several oil companies including YPF Maxus, Gulf Indonesia, Devon and Premier have recently transferred their interests or rights in a number of oil concession areas.
The minister said that a PSC operator is allowed to transfer its ownership or interest in an oil concession area to other companies as long as it receives approval from the government. According to the minister, of the 93 PSCs already awarded to oil and gas companies, the 31 PSC had underwent a change in its ownership.
The minister said that PSC remained ideal in attracting oil and gas companies to tap the country?s oil and gas resources. Since the launch of PSC in 1996, investment in the oil and gas sector has reached a total of US$38 billion or about Rp 334 trillion (at exchange rate of Rp 8,800 per dollar).
Revenues from oil and gas sector also increased from only US$180 million in 1996 to US$20 billion in 2000 and about US$16 billion in 2001.
"The combined revenues from oil and gas from 1996 to 2001 reached US$155 billion. After a deduction of exploration and production costs (cost recovery), and shares of PSC contractors, the government?s receipts from oil and gas sectors totaled over US$96 billion," the minister said.
He said that of the US$155 billion raised from oil and gas production, about US$96.5 billion (62.24%) went to the government's coffers, US$37 billion paid as cost recovery (24,06%) and US$21.5 billion (13.70%) allotted as dividend to operators. (*)