"There will be tens of oil and gas contracts which will expire up to 2018. The government should immediately take strategic steps which are beneficial to the state before the oil and gas block contracts end," Marwan said when he spoke to a seminar at the House of Representatives (DPR)building here on Wednesday.
He was speaking to a seminar which carried a theme: "Enforcing the State Sovereignty: Regaining Control Over Oil and Gas Block After Their Contracts Expired."
Economist Hendri Saparini also spoke to the seminar, along with other speakers such as Zikrullah of the Oil and Gas Regulating Agency (PB Migas), Salis Aprilian of the state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina and Chandra Tirtawijaya of the House of Representatives (DPR).
According to Marwan, national oil companies (NOC) should be given the first priority to cultivate the state resources so that they would greatly benefit the people.
"Based on Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, Pertamina as a state company whose shares are 100 percent owned by the state, must be given the first priority to cultivate new potential oil and gas blocks whose contracts have expired," he said.
He said that with the constitutional message, even without request, the government should assign Pertamina to cultivate the oil and gas blocks.
"But in practice, Pertamina rarely got the assignment. It even often became the victim such as in the case of Cepu and Semai V blocks," he said.
He said that the government and the DPR needed to improve regulations on Pertamina privilege and decide soon the status of expired oil block contracts.
Marwan said the matter was urgent to be done by the government to anticipate the extension of a number of oil block contracts such as the Mahakam, South Natuna blocks and others.(*)
A014/HAJM
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
