Draft law delays signing of Indonesia's oil contracts

Signing of new oil and gas contracts has been postponed over uncertainty in who has the authority to issue new contracts, a report said recently.

A new draft law on oil and gas has called for Pertamina to hand over the authority over mining operations to the mines and energy ministry, the newspaper Bisnis Indonesia said.

The draft law, which is yet to be passed into law, said that Pertamina's authority to issue new oil and gas contracts was to be terminated in July, 2000, a Pertamina executive Karyoso Wiroyudo said.

Karyoso said Pertamina has sent a letter to the mines and energy ministry asking for clearance about that matter.

"Pertamina does not want to wait until the completion of debate on the draft law that new contracts have to be postponed," he said.

He said four technical assistance contracts and number of production sharing contracts have been postponed. (*)