House to go ahead with oil and gas bill<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives will go ahead with
\nits plan next month to enact the oil and gas bill proposed by the
\ngovernment, despite protests from oil-rich regencies, several
\nlegislators said.<\/p>\n
Julius Bobo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
\n(PDI-Perjuangan) faction at the House and Tunggul Sirait of the
\nLove the Nation Democratic faction told The Jakarta Post that it
\nwas impossible to make substantial changes because deliberation
\nof the bill had been concluded.<\/p>\n
\"It is now too late to accommodate the regencies' demands
\nbecause the debating process for the bill has been completed,\"
\nJulius said.<\/p>\n
\"We are now at the stage of putting the finishing touches on
\nthe draft law before delivering it to a plenary session for
\napproval in mid-October,\" Julius added.<\/p>\n
The Consultative Forum of Oil Producing Regencies earlier
\nprotested the oil and gas bill, demanding the legislators
\npostpone the planned mid-October plenary session to pass the bill
\ninto law.<\/p>\n
The forum urged legislators to establish a special agency
\ncalled the Coordinating Board of National Oil and Gas in which
\nthe forum would have a representative. There is no such agency
\nmentioned in the oil and gas bill.<\/p>\n
The regencies demanded this board be assigned to watch over an
\nindependent body, called the Executive Body, which under the bill
\nwill take over state oil and gas company Pertamina's role of
\nsupervising and managing the country's oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
The bill aims to liberalize the country's oil and gas sector,
\nlift Pertamina's monopoly within the sector and turn the state
\ncompany into a profit-making limited liability company.<\/p>\n
Under the existing Pertamina Law of 1971, Pertamina, on behalf
\nof the government, regulates, supervises and manages the
\ncountry's oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
Irianto M.S Syaifuddin, chairman of the regency forum, earlier
\nwarned that any rejection of the demand by the House would create
\ndissatisfaction among people in regencies and could subsequently
\ncause disturbances at the oil and gas operations in their
\nrespective areas.<\/p>\n
The forum claims to have 45 regency and five municipality
\nmembers in 14 provinces.<\/p>\n
Tunggul said the legislators and the government had reached
\n\"in principle\" agreement on all major issues in the oil and gas
\nbill and that the passing of the bill into a law by the House was
\njust a matter of time.<\/p>\n
\"In principle, the House has approved the bill and it is only
\nperfecting the language of the bill before officially passing it
\ninto a law,\" Tunggul said.<\/p>\n
Agusman Effendy of the Golkar faction also dismissed hopes
\nthat the House would review the oil and gas bill.<\/p>\n
\"It's too late. We received a lot of input about the oil and
\ngas bill from various parties, including provincial councils,
\nnon-governmental organizations, experts, academics and the
\ngovernors association, which was expected to also voice the
\nregencies' aspirations.<\/p>\n
The bill was submitted by the government last February. (11)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/house-to-go-ahead-with-oil-and-gas-bill-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }