The government has planned to issue a regulation that would require that oil companies sell their crude oil to state energy holding company Pertamina as part of an effort to reduce imports.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry director general for oil and gas Djoko Siswanto said the regulation, to be issued next week, would not only target private companies and producers, but also Pertamina as the buyer of crude oil.

"While they [oil companies] have to sell their crude oil to Pertamina under the business-to-business scheme, the latter is also required to buy the commodity at a reasonable price," he said on Wednesday.

Under the new policy, it estimated that Pertamina would buy 225,000 barrels of oil per day.

Djoko revealed that US oil giant Chevron had expressed its willingness to sell its crude oil to Pertamina, but the company was still waiting for a taxation policy on the matter.

The government, however, assured that it would respect the existing sales and purchase contracts between private companies and other companies, such as ExxonMobil, which has a contract to transfer its crude oil produced in Banyu Urip oil field, in East Java, to its own refineries.

"We are exempting from this requirement those with an export permit," Djoko said. (bbn)