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T Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI), a subsidiary of US-based energy giant Chevron Corporation, may opt to file a legal complaint with an international arbitration body in relation to alleged mistreatment by Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office (AGO).

Maqdir Ismail, a legal counselor for CPI, said the arrest of the company’s employees by the AGO was in direct conflict with provisions in the so-called production sharing contract (PSC) between the company and the government.

“Any dispute under the PSC scheme must be settled through civil law not the criminal code,” he said.

The four CPI employees were detained for their alleged involvement in a corruption case pertinent to the company’s bioremediation project in Riau Province, Sumatra.

Bioremediation is a method used to cleanse soil around oil and gas fields from pollutants using microorganisms.

Prior to the arrest, the AGO said the project was “fictitious” and, because it was covered by the government’s cost recovery program for oil and gas exploration, it had inflicted Rp 200 billion (US$23.4 million) in losses on the state.

The AGO said an investigation into the case concluded that CPI had appointed incompetent parties to carry out the bioremediation project and found no proof that the project was ever implemented.

The conclusion was later revised, with the AGO acknowledging that the project had indeed been carried out by CPI’s partners from 2003 until 2011. However, it had failed to achieve its designated goal, which was evident by the existence of pollutants in the area.

CPI vice president for government policy and public affairs Yanto Sianipar challenged the AGO’s accusation, saying that the development of the bioremediation project had been approved and monitored by the Environment Ministry and upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas.

“To date, the bioremediation project has remediated enough soil to help re-green 60 hectares — the equivalent of 75 football fields — of land in Riau Province, Sumatra,” he said in a statement.

The AGO has so far released the names of seven suspects in the case, five of whom are CPI workers. The four employees, identified only by their initials: ER, BAF, W and K, have been detained by the prosecutors since Sept 27.

All of the suspects are subject to Articles 2 and 3 of the 2001 Anti-Corruption Law, which would be used to investigate the case, the AGO said. Each article carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Maqdir argues that the Anti-Corruption Law could not be implemented on any legal cases that involved cost recovery to be paid by the state. He argued that any legal steps taken with regards to the case must adhere to the contract signed by CPI and the government. By popular definition, a contract between a private entity with the government is on par with the country’s law.

“We are not the only lawyers for Chevron, there is also a team of lawyers from the US. One of the available options is to take this case to the ICSID,” he said, referring to Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Maqdir said the ICSID could protect a private entity in a legal case against the government.

Most importantly, he said, the AGO had failed to present any evidence of state losses related to the project as would be proven by the existence and the success rate of the project.