http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/5/26/govt-must-review-law-on-oil-gas-to-attract-investors/
05/26/07 11:34 Govt must review law on oil, gas to attract investors Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government should soon amend Law No. 22 / 2001 on Oil and Gas as part of the effort to attract foreign investors, particularly in explorations of new oil fields in the country, oil observer Kurtubi said here on Saturday. He said that investment in Indonesia had been made even difficult with illogical rulings, namely by lengthening the investment license procedures which initially could be settled in a one-stop roof only but now they had to pass through at least five offices. Besides, investors are also reluctant to invest in oil exploration business in Indonesia because they have to pay taxes and other levies even before they could find oil reserves. "It just logical if the number of investors in Indonesia decreased drastically because the investment climate in the oil and gas sector is not conducive," Kurtubi said. The best way to find obvious indicators showing the less favorable investment climate in Indonesia is to look back the exploration activities in the past, he said. He said that in the 1980s and 1990s, some 250 new oil wells were explored annually but since 2000, it is only about 60 new wells are explored per annum, there was even a period when only 30 wells were explored a year. Kurtubi said that based on geologists` researches, Indonesia still had oil and gas reserves amounting to 80 billion barrels which were enough for the countries need for 100 more years. "The oil reserves are found in 60 cavities in Central Sumatra, Natuna, Makassar strait, West Java, East Java, Papua, West Nusa Tenggara offshore and around Maluku," he said. The oil observer said that to explore the oil reserves about US$200 to US$400 million were needed annually. Besides, he said, the country`s liquefied natural gas (LNG) reserves also were also estimated to still reach 350 trillion cubic feet. One of the region in Indonesia which keeps a large LNG deposit is Central Sulawesi, where a factory could be designed with a capacity of three million cubic feet per annum. (*) Copyright © 2007 ANTARA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
