Government 'loses' data on oil and gas

Government 'loses' data on oil and gas

JAKARTA (JP): The government has lost 30 percent of the data
file on the country's oil and gas resources collected by
contractors during exploration and exploitation activities, a
data management company said on Thursday.

Director of data management company PT Patra Nusa Duta Triyono
Hadi said the "missing" files were being traded overseas.

"The 'missing' data files are valued at tens of millions of
dollars," he said on the sidelines of a seminar on oil and gas
data management.

Patra Nusa has been appointed by the Ministry of Mines and
Energy to collect, acquire and publicize the country's oil and
gas data.

Triyono said the company was endeavoring to obtain copies of
the files.

Company general manager Baskoro told The Jakarta Post, a
complete set of data was being traded by a Singapore-based
company.

Triyono refused to speculate about the parties responsible for
the missing files. However, he said the government had a poor
data filing system and their was no mechanism to obligate oil and
gas contractors to deliver to the government all the data they
collected.

Under the production sharing contracts, oil and gas
contractors are required to deliver all data collected during the
general survey, exploration and exploitation periods to the
government. The information is considered government property.

However, many contractors failed to comply with the rule due
to the absence of a regulation-enforcement mechanism.

Baskoro said the government began attaching importance to
collecting and managing the data in the early 1990s and launched
the Migas Data Management Program in 1995.

The director general of oil and gas at the Ministry of Mines
and Energy appointed Patra Duta in 1997 to manage the project
under a 10-year contract, and allowed the company to commercially
publicize the data to cover storage expenses.

Patra Nusa is majority owned by PT El Nusa Harapan, which is
wholly owned by the foundation of the Ministry of Mines and
Energy employees and the foundation of the directorate general of
oil and gas employees.

In line with the project, then Minister of Mines and Energy IB
Sudjana issued in 1997 a decree regarding the acquisition,
management and publication of general survey, exploration and
exploitation data.

The decree stipulates that oil and gas contractors must submit
data obtained from geological, geophysical, geochemical surveys,
drilling activities and production to the director general of oil
and gas, at the latest, three months after completion of the
activities.

Director General of Oil and Gas Rachmat Sudibyo said in a
speech at the seminar that a complete file of oil and gas data
would attract more investors to Indonesia.

He said collecting the data was a daunting task given that the
information was dispersed and much was in poor condition.

Rachmat called on oil and gas contractors to support the
project. (jsk)