Jakarta, Kompas: Indonesia needs to allocate oil and gas funds to finance exploration of new reserves discovery. The funds can also be allocated for infrastructure spending in the oil and gas sector, including renewable energy development. Publish What You Pay Indonesia, a civil society coalition for transparency and accountability of extractive resources, supports the allocation of oil and gas (oil and gas) funds to discuss revisions to Law Number 22 the Year 2001 concerning Oil and Gas.
The funds are needed, one of which, for the development of renewable energy in Indonesia. Head of the Advocacy and Network Division at Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia Aryanto Nugroho said, during a meeting to provide proposals from civil society to revise Law No. oil and gas reserve fund. The two sources of funds and their use are distinguished. “Oil and gas funds are allocated from state revenues in the oil and gas sector.
The oil and gas reserve funds, which are spent in the regions, can be taken from oil and gas revenue-sharing funds or dividends obtained from local capital participation in an oil and gas working area,” said Aryanto, Sunday (30/7) in Jakarta. The collected oil and gas funds, continued Aryanto, were spent on exploration financing in the context of discovering new oil and gas reserves. Meanwhile, the oil and gas reserve fund is more devoted to local economic stability, particularly in oil and gas producing regions. One of the regions that have succeeded in utilizing oil and gas reserves is Bojonegoro Regency, East Java. The area benefits from the Banyu Urip oil field in the Cepu Block, which produces at least 165,000 barrels per day.
Community Development
Bojonegoro managed to collect funds allocated as reserve funds amounting to Rp. 100 billion in 2016. The funds were kept and only used for interest, namely for human resource development and small and medium enterprises in Bojonegoro. Deputy Chairman of Commission VII DPR from the Golkar Party Satya Widya Yudha agreed with the planned allocation of oil and gas funds to be discussed in the revision of Law No. 22/2001. According to him, the DPR, which was the initiator of the revision of the Law, also proposed collecting oil and gas funds as a solution amid the lack of government funds searching for new oil and gas reserves.
“We propose that there be oil and gas funds collected from state revenues from the oil and gas sector. So far, funding for discovering reserves has been minimal, “said Satya. Specifically, there has been no discussion about who will manage the funds. However, he believes that it does not matter if the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, as the technical ministry for the energy sector, manages the oil and gas fund collection. The discourse on allocating funds has surfaced since early 2015. At that time, the government planned to collect Rp 200 per liter from each sale of premium fuel oil and Rp 300 per liter from each diesel fuel sale. The government refers to Law No. 30/2007 on energy.