Gov’t to Provide Access of Oil & Gas Data to Investors

Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Archandra Tahar (Photo by: IST)

In a bid to attract oil and gas investors to Indonesia, the Government plans to disclose Indonesian oil and gas raw data free of charge to be widely accessible to investors, according to Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Archandra Tahar.

He added that the Government also assures that the disclosure of oil and gas data access will not release state control over the data.

“The state still has full authority over the oil and gas data,” said Archandra as quoted in Ministry of Energy and Mineral resources’ press release in Jakarta on Thursday (18/4).

The Government, he added, is also due to issue a Ministerial Regulation next month which will make it easier for investors to access oil and gas data free of charge and enable investors to find new oil and gas reserves.

“We will invite the Cooperation Contract Contractors (KKKS) to disseminate open data policy that is part of this Big Data program,” Archandra said, adding that the Ministry will also introduce the scheme of members and non-members for this open data policy and will also protect data of the KKKS valid for four years, six years, and eight years.

“Data access is limited for non-members and for those who become members, the Government will provide data access not only limited to seismic raw data, but also processed data and interpretation data,” Archandra added.

The Deputy Minister also dismissed allegation that such policy will violate state sovereignty. “We do not sell the country’s wealth. The data still belongs to the state and the state still controls the data. As we are looking for oil, we will give the data to investors,” Archandra said, adding several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom have also adopted an open data policy on a terabyte scale.

“In the past, if you want to access data, you have to pay first. Now you can access the data without paying. Under this policy, it is expected that companies will compete to process the data using their own funds,” Archandra said.

For the record, the oil and gas open data policy constitutes a revision of Regulation of Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 27 of 2006 on Management and Utilization of Oil and Gas Data, Exploration Data, and Exploitation. Under this policy, investors are expected to be interested in conducting exploration and exploitation activities in Indonesia so that new oil and gas reserves can be found. (BKP Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources/ES)

Translated by: Muhardi

Edited by: M. Ersan Pamungkas