Comparison between Oil & Gas Contracts and General Mining Contracts in Indonesia

Comparison between Oil & Gas Contracts and General Mining Contracts in Indonesia From my experience working for 5 Years as In house Legal Counsel in the Oil and Gas Sectors(Virginia Company Indonesia / Huffco Indonesia)(Oil and Gas), 5 Years as in house Legal Counsel in the General Mining Sectors (Copper and Gold) (PT Freeport Indonesia Company), 5 Years in a reputable Law Firm in Indonesia, 2 Years as Partner of a Leading Reputable Law Firm in Indonesia, and 10 Years as Partner in the Law Firm of Suleiman Agung & Co in Indonesia, I can conclude that even though both resources are from the same Indonesian below grounds deposits, the treatment in entering into agreements for general survey, exploration, exploitation, producing up to marketing between the products of Oil and Gas and the General Mining are different.

In the Oil and Gas Sectors, the Government of the Republic of Indonesia now being represented by BP Migas will usually enter into a Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) with the Oil and Gas Contractors, where the Oil and Gas Contractors will be responsible to seek the funds and technology for seeking the oil and gas reserve deposits starting from the general survey, exploration, exploitation and producing the commercial oil and gas products, where all the risks shall be borne solely by the Oil and Gas Contractors.

Once the Oil and Gas produced from a certain field /portion of Contract Area are considered and agreed by BP Migas and the Oil and Gas Contractor, as commercial field / commercial portion of the Contract Area, ready to be developed for commercial production, then all of the expenses and costs incurred by the Oil and Gas Contractors, shall be cost recovered by the Government of Indonesia (GOI).

These cost recovery are taken from the Oil and Gas produced from such Contract Area during the current Year pursuant to the terms and conditions under the PSC. Since there is a cost recovery mechanism introduced by the GOI, then the GOI through BP Migas shall have the right to manage the oil and gas operations conducted by the Oil and Gas Contractors in terms of approvals of performing the services and procuring the services and contracts relating to the operations of the oil and gas activities.

Accordingly, all the material and goods being purchased and used by the Oil and Gas Contractors shall be owned by the GOI, however, for the term of the PSC, the oil and gas Contractors shall have the right to use such materials and goods for performing the oil and gas operations. Furthermore after the operating cost and expenses are being recovered by GOI or BP Migas, there will be an Equity oil and gas split between the Oil and Gas Contractors and BP Migas / the GOI.

Whereas, relating to the General Mining Activities, there is no any such cost recovery mechanism made and developed by the Government of Indonesia to the Mining Contractors for the costs incurred and spent by the Mining Contractors. There is also no any Equity split of production of the General Mining Products between the GOI and the General Mining Contractors, except to Coal Mining Contractors where there is a certain split of production around 13, 5 % for the GOI pursuant to the Coal Mining Cooperation Agreement between the Coal Mining Contractors and the GOI.

The Government’s take in the General Mining is from the royalty of the Production of the Mining products which are being sold to the Buyers of the General Mining products which is around 1 % to 3 %. There is a certain sort of rental fee of the Area per HA, which is a progressive rate starting from the General Survey period, which will be increased in a certain percentage during the explorations phase, production phase until marketing phase.

These rental fee is being adjusted and modified from year to year. There are also some instances, where the General Mining Contractors are entering into an agreement with the Local Government, where a certain Community Development program is being agreed upon, for which a certain percentage of its annual production is agreed upon to be contributed for the development of the Local Area in the frame work of Community Development.

In these arrangements, the General Mining Contractor may try to request for assurance from the Local Authority such as the Bupati, that such contribution is really being used for the Local Area Development and not being transferred to the Central Government, which was frequently experienced, as not being used for such respective Local Area Development.

Accordingly we can see that, even though, the products are taken from the same Indonesian Mining Territory within the Territory of the Republic of Indonesia, the treatment in entering the agreements between the GOI and the Contractors, are being ruled and treated differently.

Agung Supomo Suleiman October 7, 2008 Practicing as Business Lawyer particularly in the Oil and Gas and General Mining, and Coal Mining Sectors in Indonesia for more than 25 Years since 1985. Partner at the Law Firm of Suleiman Agung & Co http://www.sacolaw.blogspot.com http://www.agungssuleiman.blogspot.com email : agungsacolaw@telkom.net agungsuleiman@gmail.com Mobile Phone : 0816830647