Lawmaker calls for stronger monitoring of oil and gas deals

Weak monitoring is the principle reason why foreign firms, rather than the state oil and gas firm, often snap up oil and gas block exploration contracts in Indonesia, a lawmaker said here Thursday.

Golkar Party legislator Satya W. Yudha said that although most politicians in parliament and the government shared the view that state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina should be the major operator of oil and gas fields in Indonesia, tenders for oil and gas blocks often ended up being dominated by foreign firms.

Satya attributed this to weak monitoring by upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas in the deal-making process.

“We all have the same ‘macro assumption’,” he said, referring to a belief that oil and gas fields in the country should be operated by Pertamina.

“The problem is, it always fails at the implementation level. That’s why we need to strengthen the supervisory function of BPMigas; its human resources and monitoring system,” said Satya, a member of House of Representatives’ Commission VII overseeing energy and mineral resources issues.

He also told a discussion Thursday on the exploration of a East Natuna gas block at the House that he had shared his recommendation with Commission VII.

“I’ve told my friends in Commission VII we need more detailed monitoring.”