President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is expected to sign by mid-February the Government Regulation (PP) that will provide the legal basis for the transformation of state-owned energy giant Pertamina into a holding company, an official of the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Ministry has said over the weekend.

“The draft regulation has already been submitted to President Joko Widodo on Jan. 31. We hope the President will sign the draft by within the week, or two weeks at most,” the SOE Ministry's director general for mining, strategic industries and media affairs, Fajar Harry Sampurno, said on Sunday.

Under the government’s restructuring plan, state-owned gas company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) will be merged with Pertamina’s gas subsidiary, PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas).

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The merger will increase PGN's total assets by 27.5 percent to US$8.7 billion, according to the two companies' 2016 financial reports. Their combined downstream gas pipelines spanned 9,520 kilometers as of 2017.

On Jan. 25, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry assigned Pertamina to construct two new local gas networks for households in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan in 2018.

Meanwhile, PGN was tasked with building new facilities in five regions, two in North Sumatra, two in East Java and one in Banten.

Pertamina and PGN were also assigned to expand existing household gas networks in nine regions, including South Sumatra, North Kalimantan, West Java and East Java. (bbn)