JAKARTA (IO): Regents of oil producing areas this week protested over the oil and gas bill which is expected to be passed into law next month.

The Consultative Forum of Oil Producing Regencies chairman, Irianto M.S. Syaifuddin, said that the forum had demanded a role in formulating the national oil and gas policy and in supervising the implementation of the policy.

But, he said, the government and the House of Representatives had failed to pay any attention to the demand in the debating process of the oil and gas bill.

"We have delivered our proposal to the House, but we only received an answer that the House will help," Irianto, who is also regent of Indramayu regency in West Java, told a media conference.

The forum, established in September, has members from 45 regencies, five municipalities and 14 provinces.

Under the forum´s proposal, the new oil and gas law should have a clause requiring the formation of a special agency, called the Coordinating Board of National Oil and Gas, where the forum would have representatives.

This "super" agency would be assigned to watch over the Executive Body, which, under the oil and gas bill, will take over state oil and gas company Pertamina´s role of supervising and managing the country´s oil and gas industry.

Legislators said last week that they had completed a debate of the oil and gas bill proposed by the government and are now putting finishing touches on the bill before it is officially passed into law in a plenary session slated for mid-October.

The new law is aimed at liberalizing the country´s oil and gas sector, removing Pertamina´s decades-long monopoly on the sector and turn the state company into a limited-liability company.

Irianto called on the House to postpone the plenary session to pass the bill into law until it is reviewed to accommodate the forum´s aspiration.

He said any rejection of the demand by the House could create dissatisfaction among people in the regencies and create security problems for oil and gas operations in the areas.

"If the oil and gas producing regions are denied a participation (in forming oil gas policies), this will create a fatal consequence," he warned.

East Lampung regent Irfan N. Djafar called on the government and the House not to underestimate the role of local authorities in providing security for oil and gas companies.

"Thus far, we have taken pains to persuade local people not to take anarchic action against oil and gas companies in their areas. But it seems that the central government and the House are not sensitive to the problems," Irfan said.

Separately, legislator Julius Bobo of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle faction said the demand would be hardly accepted as the House had assumed the central government had coordinated with regional administrations prior to submitting the bill.

"If the regency administrations act like that, the districts and the villages will follow, and the country will be in disorder, " he told local reporters.

Besides, he said, the forum had submitted its proposal when the House and the government were about to finalize the debate of the oil and gas bill.

He suggested the regencies have further talks with the central government over what suitable roles should be given them.

(source : www.indonesian-observer.com)