The government decided last week to remove the cost of accessing data on oil and gas blocks, which previously could cost up to $80,000.

The move is an attempt to attract more companies to bid in the upstream sector, said Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Oil and Gas Director General Djoko Siswanto on Monday.

“[With this policy], we need to carry out further evaluations and interpretation about the potential [of each oil and gas block]. The policy will be implemented for all future actions,” Djoko said.

However, the winner of an auction will have to pay the $80,000, which will go to the ministry’s non-tax revenue (PNBP).

Previously, the head of the ministry’s data and information technology center Agus Cahyono Adi said the new policy would come into effect with the upcoming auction period.

“We’ve introduced the policy because of a total of 215 auctions of oil and gas blocks, data was only sought by 223 bidders,” he said. (bbn)