Jakarta adds up revenue from offshore oil

Jakarta adds up revenue from offshore oil

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is set to receive
approximately US$1.50 from each barrel of crude oil absorbed from
city offshore oil platforms, the only natural resource here, an
official said on Friday.

"Assuming the current oil price of $20 per barrel, the
administration would only receive $1.50 for each barrel after the
net profit was deducted for taxes," said the director of
exploration and production at the Ministry of Mines and Energy,
Kardaya Warnika.

Kardaya said that based on Law No. 25/1999 on Fiscal Balance
Between the Central Government and Regional Authorities, Jakarta
was allowed to collect 15 percent of the oil revenue, while the
central government would collect the remaining 85 percent.

"But it's (the $1.50) not a small sum," he said during his
brief to Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso and his entourage on Pabelokan
Island in Pulau Seribu.

Based on an estimation that oil companies operating in the
area under the jurisdiction of Jakarta could produce 18,000
barrels of crude oil per day, the city administration would earn
a total of $9.72 million a year.

Sutiyoso and City Council Speaker Edy Waluyo and several
officials and councilors were on a one-day trip to the island to
visit the home base of Argentina-owned oil firm YPF-Maxus.

City councilor Tjuk Sudono of the National Mandate Party (PAN)
said two oil firms with offshore Jakarta operations -- Maxus and
U.S. firm Arco -- could produce more than 30,000 barrels per day.

The councilor from the council's Commission D for development
suggested that in the future the administration required the
firms to pay taxes on gas and oil pipelines established offshore.

In a bid to obtain accurate oil production capacity data, Edy
Waluyo asked state oil and gas firm Pertamina for assistance in
providing correct figures on oil production offshore from
Jakarta.

Sutiyoso announced that his office would start securing oil
revenue from the offshore oil resources beginning from Aug. 31,
2001 as stipulated in the law.

He said his administration would further discuss the issue
with the neighboring provincial authorities of West Java and
Lampung, whose area is also used by the oil firms.

YPF-Maxus vice president O.S. Adisaputra confirmed that
several of the company's 63 oil platforms were located in
offshore areas under the jurisdiction of the Jakarta
administration. Many others are located in the waters of Lampung
and West Java.

"But we don't have a map which shows the precise location of
our oil platforms -- whether they are located in Jakarta, West
Java or Lampung," he told the visiting guests.

Adisaputra said his firm's production-sharing contract with
Pertamina stipulated that Maxus obtains 15 percent from net
profit of the oil, while the Indonesian government will receive
the remaining 85 percent.

He said the contract, which was signed in 1968 for a 30-year
period, had been extended for an additional 20 years. (jun)