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span class="caption" style="width: 318px;">Edy Hermantoro: (esdm.go.id)The newly appointed oil and gas director general of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Edy Hermantoro, is facing a tough challenge to keep the country’s business climate for the hydrocarbon sector attractive for investors ahead the 2014 general election.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik on Thursday officially installed the 56-year-old Edy, previously the secretary to the oil and gas directorate general and former director of the ministry’s upstream oil and gas sector, as the new oil and gas chief at the ministry.

Born in Yogyakarta on Oct. 7, 1956, Edy graduated from the geology school of the National Development University (UPN) Veteran Yogyakarta in 1983. He received his master’s degree in business policy from the University of Indonesia in 2003.

He once represented Indonesia at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in December 2008 when he was still the planning and operations head for the ministry.

In addition, Edy is a member of the board of commissioners of state-owned PT Pertamina’s upstream subsidiary, Pertamina EP.

Edy previously served as an acting replacement for former oil and gas director general Evita Herawati Legowo, who retired in November last year.

When asked about Edy’s competence, Evita said that her replacement had more experience in the upstream sector than the downstream sector. She hoped, however, that with his experience with the ministry, Edy would still be able to perform his duties.

Meanwhile, Lukman Mahfoedz, the chairman of the Indonesia Petroleum Association (IPA), whose members include giants such as Total and US-based Chevron, said that the organization had high hopes for Edy.

“He has been with the ministry for quite some time and thus he has knowledge of the industry. We hope that the election year won’t harm the investment climate,” Lukman said.

In a speech delivered before the ministry’s top officials and several executives in the country’s oil and gas contractors, Jero warned that ahead of the 2014 election, Edy would “face more pressures”.

“With his experience, I really hope that the new oil and gas chief will still be able to boost investment, particularly in the exploration phase. If the current business climate continues like this, in the next 10 years, we will have no more oil,” said Jero, who is a senior Democratic Party politician.

Out of the US$26.2 billion in investment expected this year, only around 10 percent, or $2.7 billion, will come from 200 contractors for exploration and the drilling of 75 oil and gas exploration wells. This year’s investment by contractors has only increased slightly compared to last year’s investment of $2 billion. —JP/Amahl S. Azwar