Under new contracts, domestic market gets over 50% of gas production

By Ruli Setiawan

The government plans to formulate regulations which will require producers to allocate at least 50 percent of its gas production to domestic market, a hearing between Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and lawmakers revealed.

The planned regulations will be applied to new oil and gas contracts, said Minister Jero Wacik last Friday in the hearing with the House of Representatives? Commission VII on energy affairs.

?So fo new contracts, export allocation should be as low as possible,? he said, adding that the exact percentage was still being discussed but it would certainly be over 50 percent.

Indonesia, on the back of its steady economic growth, has seen domestic demand for energy, including gas, increasing rapidly over the years.

The Commission will hold more hearings to discuss this issue further.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana