Ministry of EMR: Clean Government Will Attract More Oil & Gas Investments

KATADATA ? Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is confident that cleaner and more efficient governance in oil and gas sector will attract more investors. President Joko Widodo will be able to convince investors that Indonesian government is now better, cleaner and more efficient.  

?Going forward, we will see more FDI inflows into various sectors in Indonesia including oil and gas industry,? he said in his opening speech read by the Director General of Oil and Gas of the Ministry of EMR Naryanto Wagimin at the XIII IATMI National Symposium and Congress, at Le Meridien, in Jakarta, on Wednesday (12/3).

Increased investment will boost Indonesia?s economic growth. On the other hand, economic growth will lead to increased energy demand. Thus investment is crucial to meet energy demand.

Data from the Ministry of EMR revealed that the national energy consumption grows by 8 percent per year. In the meantime, oil production declines by 3-5 percent since 2007. That?s why 50 percent of the national energy demand has come from imports.

A clean government is expected to boost investment in oil and gas sector and reduce dependence on energy imports. The Ministry of EMR expects oil production to increase to one million barrel per day in 2015. 

Minister of EMR Sudirman Said said earlier that investors will support the transformation in oil and gas sector in order to make it cleaner. According to him, the cleaner the bureaucracy, the happier the investors will be.

Sudirman also said that his staffs face many challenges in rooting out corruption. EMR staffs are frequently enticed by money when enforcing rules in energy and mineral sectors.

That?s why he reorganizes his organization. One of them is by replacing and holding open recruitment for echelon I and II posts at the Ministry of EMR.