TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been asked to take over oil and natural gas management so that national oil production does not sharply decrease. The government has also been asked to evaluate and to audit the Upstream Oil and Gas Executive Body (BP Migas) and the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources l. National oil production during 2006 failed to meet the target that the state budget set with 1.050 million barrels per day.

A minister says the government will help the regions secure the more expeditious approval of their budgets from their local councils, and is devising policies to ensure that development funds are actually spent on time, rather then being parked in central bank treasury bills. "We acknowledge that a number of regions are experiencing technical problems in having their budgets approved by their local councils, and in disbursing the allocated funds.

The House of Representatives is set to miss its target of passing the much-awaited mining bill by March 2007 as the committee handling it has only managed to discuss 84 of the total of 414 articles listed in the draft. "If there are no major obstacles, hopefully we'll be able to pass it into law early next year," committee member Alvin Lie said Monday during a discussion on the bill.

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Palm Oil Businessmen Association (Gapki) has feared that new rule on the use of tankers with double-wall holds would raise the palm oil transportation tariffs by 20 percent. Therefore, Gapki called on the government to keep lobbying the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to postpone the implementation of the new rule.