Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia considered that parliament is too slow in discussing oil and gas law revision number 22/2001, given it’s already 6 years since the law has been included in the national legislation program. It’s not only urged due to the decisions of Constitutional Court that annul several articles in 2001 oil and gas law, but also the existing problems that require a systemic solution, such as energy crisis in 2025 and also the rent seeker.
Maryati Abdullah, National Coordinator of PWYP Indonesia, in the media discussion on “Oil and Gas Law Revision: Slow and Silent Amid Energy Crisis and Rent Seeker Threat” on 22 November 2016 in Cikini, said that the energy needs of Indonesia is predicted reaching 7.5 barrel per day which consist of 47% from oil and gas. While the energy consumption reaches 1.4 ton energy, equal to oil per day (DEN, 2016)
Todays, the fact indicates that oil production only reach 250 thousand barrel per day with 86% of total oil production brought from the old field, and the current reserve is not able to fulfill needs (SKK Migas, 2016).
Andang Bachtiar, member of National Energy Council estimates Indonesia’s oil and gas import will increase 3 times in 2025, and increase 6 times in 2050. On the other hand, exploration effort and invention new well has not increased significantly yet. On this matter, he added that oil and gas law revision should anticipate this problem to maintain national energy security.
Masih dalam kesempatan yang sama, mantan anggota Tim Reformasi Tata Kelola Migas, Fahmy Radhi mengingatkan bahwa semakin tertundanya penyelesaian revisi UU Migas akan menimbulkan ketidakpastian yang dapat dimanfaatkan oleh mafia migas untuk melakukan perburuan rente. “Ulah Mafia Migas salah satunya disebabkan tidak adanya transparansi dalam tata kelola kelembagaan migas di Indonesia. Sudah tidak ada lagi alasan untuk menunda penyelesaian Revisi UU Migas,” tutur Fahmy Radhi
Also spoke in the forum, former member of Oil and Gas Governance Reform Team, Fahmi Radhi. He reminded public that more delay on the oil and gas law revision discussion will bring more uncertainty and potentially give advantage for rent seeker. “Rent seeking is existed due to the absence of transparency in governing oil and gas institution in Indonesia. There is no reason to delay the oil and gas law revision,” said Fahmy Radhi.
Slow and Silent Discussion Process
Sulastio, member of board PWYP Indonesia, argued that the delay on oil and gas law revision is mainly caused by the poor legislation performance. Until 9th November 2016, parliament only finished 9 laws from 50 laws targeted (18%). “Based on Indonesia Parliamentary Center (IPC) record, during the 5th trial in 2016, oil and gas law revision discussion meeting are closed. Besides that, space for public participation is limited, and only involved the government,” said Sulastio.
The coalition visits to several parliament fractions (Fraction Hanura (2/9/2016), Gerindra (8/12/2016), Nasdem (9/12/2016), and PKS (13/12/2016)), revealed the culprit behind the slow and closed discussion on oil and gas law revision. The parliament apparently have yet to agree on the aspect of upstream-downstream institution and members agreed to keep this discussion internal.
During the visits, PWYP Indonesia urged Commission 7 to disclose the process of oil and gas law revision. “By making the process transparent and inclusive, public will know each fraction’s position and their interest. Also, it will prevent any intervene that might be contra-productive with national interest,” said manager of advocacy and network PWYP Indonesia, Aryanto Nugroho.
Proposed Oil and Gas Law Revision by Civil Society
The coalition has drafted Oil and Gas Law -Civil Society version as an alternate point of view for Oil and Gas law discussion at Parliament. There are 11 key issues: oil and gas management plan, institutional model in upstream, regulatory body, Petroleum Fund, Domestic Market Obligation, Reserve Fund, Cost Recovery, Participating Interest, protection from the impact of oil and gas activity, and information and participation system. The coalition urges the government to formulate Oil and Gas Law Revision which can improve oil and gas governance also pursue energy security.
The civil society proposal also being discussed with the Parliament Expertise Agency (23/11/2016), as well as discussion series held by the government on “Oil and Gas Law Revision in the Framework of Human Right” (5/9/2016) and “Synchronization of Oil and Gas Law Revision in Energy Security Framework” (22/9/2016).