The Government Will Continue Streamlining Oil and Gas Permits

The government continues to streamline the permits that are needed in the oil and gas sector to speed up oil and gas projects and boost up lifting in order to achieve the target of 1 million barrels of oil per day (BOPD) in 2030.

“Among the permits that has been deleted are ministry regulations, director general regulations, and SKK Migas regulations. We won’t stop. We will continue to streamline all permits,” the Secretary General of Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Ego Syahrial, said to the media recently.

He added that the EMR Ministry have streamlined the permit process in the energy and mineral resources sectors by erasing around 189 permits, of which 60 permits relate directly to the oil and gas sector. This streamlining of permits is needed to improve Indonesia’s oil and gas investment climate so that it can compete with neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries.

Meanwhile, SKK Migas has launched the One Door Service Policy (ODSP) to simplify the processes of obtaining permits, hence speeding up oil and gas projects. The SKK Migas Chairman, Dwi Soetjipto, is optimistic that this new policy can resolve obstacles in obtaining permits related to the oil and gas projects as well as improving Indonesia’s oil and gas investment climate.

He explained that SKK Migas will assist the PSC Companies to obtain required permits from all of the various related departments. “Oil and gas projects have been delayed due to the length of time it takes to obtain permits. It won’t happen again. We hope that ODSP can resolve this obstacle,” Dwi said.

In addition, the Chairman of Indonesian Petroleum Engineers Society (IATMI), John H Simamora, said that the oil lifting target of 1 million BOPD in 2030 which has been set by the Government is quite challenging if there is still a bottleneck in obtaining permits since each ministry has its own regulations and hence this can cause permits to be overlapping. Also, this includes the regulations and permits from local governments.

He believes that streamlining of permits will help to increase oil and gas lifting. “If every stakeholder support us, we can increase our oil lifting in 2030,” John said recently. The improvements in permit streamlining are important and need to be done. (*)