JAKARTA – The civil society coalition incorporated in Publish What You Pay Indonesia, which is driven by the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), once again held a series of discussions related to the proposed draft civil society version of the Oil and Gas Bill. In the discussion that was held on Friday (15/8) at Pomelotel, there were two issues raised, namely the upstream oil and gas institutions and the oil and gas budget. The presentation on oil and gas institutions was presented by Giri Ahmad Taufik (PSHK), Firdaus Ilyas (ICW), and Ridaya Laodengkowe (Former Coordinator of PWYP Indonesia National Secretariat). Meanwhile, the presentation of the oil and gas budget was presented by Lukman Hakim (Seknas FITRA). A number of civil society representatives who were also present included from the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI), Transparency International Indonesia (TII), Institute for Essential Service Reform (IESR), Article 33.

The discussion on institutions became one of the interesting discussions in the discussion. Some differences in views that arise among others are related to the institutional model, namely what kind of institutional model is considered suitable with Indonesian oil and gas, who is expected to have a role in carrying out management functions and business functions and the extent of the role of each party in the institution.

The results of the discussion debate formulated the oil and gas institutional model of the Indonesian PWYP coalition are: State / Government (Legislative and Executive) as policy function holders, State-Owned Enterprises (one or several) as holders of regulatory functions and State-Owned Enterprises can work on their own or contract with national and foreign private parties in the context of conducting oil and gas business.

The theme of the oil and gas budget which was discussed in the discussion included the linkages of state institutional aspects with state finances, the importance of open principles, accountability, professionalism, and proportionality. In addition, the interests of future generations are also included in the draft oil and gas bill, located in one of the articles on regional equity. As for earmarking state revenue, sovereign wealth funds (SWF) and state revenue must be opened according to the FOI Law. In addition, discussions on the oil and gas budget also highlighted the importance of mapping and recording oil and gas assets. That becomes an important point to be carried out so that it can be seen the realization of the amount of oil and gas raised, sold, and converted to income. The follow-up plan of this discussion is to present experts in the oil and gas industry in the next discussion.