East Kalimantan Block Further Review

PT Pertamina said it took an additional three months to evaluate the economics of the East Kalimantan Block. While the results of the study for the seven blocks of oil and gas assigned to the company have been submitted to the government.

As is known, the Government has assigned Pertamina to manage eight blocks whose contracts are mostly completed by 2018. In detail, the Tuban Block concluded its contract on February 23, Ogan Komering February 28, Sanga-Sanga August 7, South-east Sumatera September 5, Middle 4 October, North Sumatra Offshore 15 October, and East Kalimantan on 24 October. While the Attaka Bloc actually contracted out on March 31, 2017 ago.

Upstream Director of Pertamina Syamsu Alam said the study of seven oil and gas blocks had been completed and submitted to the government at the end of last month. However, for East Kalimantan Block, his side requested additional time for further study.

 "We asked for an additional time of about three months," he said

Previously, Pertamina had requested an additional one month to complete the study of eight blocks of this termination. This state-owned oil and gas company argues that it needs an in-depth study of the implementation of production sharing contract (PSC) of gross split scheme in these eight blocks. The reason, when proposing the management of all these blocks, the company made a count with PSC cost recovery scheme.

In addition, Pertamina is also concerned about the impact of the abandonement and site restoration (ASR) of the old contract. The ASR problem is also what prompted Pertamina to request an additional three months to study the East Kalimantan Block. Because the ASR load to bear is quite large.

"For the East Kalimantan Block, we ask for additional time because the cost of ASR is quite large and result in less good economy," said Alam.

As is known, the obligation to set aside new ASR funds is applied to new oil and gas contracts. As for the old contracts such as East Kalimantan Block is not required to set aside post-mining funds. In fact, it takes a lot of money to clean up the rest of the oil mines, including technical planning costs, licensing fees and regulatory compliance, well closing costs (other than exploration wells), demolition costs, transportation costs, storage costs, and area recovery costs.

On the other hand, the government indicated it would divert this ASR payment charge to new contractors managing the related block, including the East Kalimantan Block. Not only that, because using a gross split contract, ASR fully becomes the contractor's expense. In the cost recovery scheme, the government shares the burden of post-mining.

"There is already a Ministerial Regulation, later on the new terms and conditions required ASR obligation," said Director of Upstream Coaching Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR) Tunggal some time ago.

Earlier, IPA Executive Director Marjolijn Wajong said oil and gas contracts signed before 1990 did not require ASR allowance. In fact, if counting the number of wells drilled for decades, the required ASR funds would be quite large.

Collecting these funds to one of the companies, whether the contract is exhausted or taking over the management, will be a heavy burden.

For the contractor who took over running the block out of this contract, the imposition of ASR is said to be able to slash the economy of the block. Meanwhile, if billed to the old contractor there is no funds that can be deposited considering there is no provision of funds since the beginning of the contract. Coercion billing also has the potential for dispute between the government and the contractor.

IN INDONESIA

Blok East Kalimantan Dikaji Lebih Lanjut

PT Pertamina  menyatakan membutuhkan tambahan waktu tiga bulan untuk mengevaluasi keekonomian Blok East Kalimantan. Sementara hasil kajian untuk tujuh blok migas lain yang ditugaskan ke perseroan sudah diserahkan kepada pemerintah.

Seperti diketahui, Pemerintah menugaskan Pertamina untuk mengelola delapan blok yang kontraknya kebanyakan selesai pada 2018. Rincinya, Blok Tuban selesai kontraknya pada 23 Februari, Ogan Komering 28 Februari, Sanga-Sanga 7 Agustus, South-east Sumatera 5 September, Tengah 4 Oktober, North Sumatera Offshore 15 Oktober, dan East Kalimantan pada 24 Oktober. Sementara Blok Attaka justru kontraknya sudah habis pada 31 Maret 2017 lalu.

Direktur Hulu Pertamina Syamsu Alam mengatakan, kajian untuk tujuh blok migas sudah diselesaikan dan diserahkan kepada pemerintah pada akhir bulan lalu. Hanya saja, untuk Blok East Kalimantan, pihaknya meminta tambahan waktu untuk melakukan kajian lebih lanjut.

 “Kami minta tambahan Waktu sekitar tiga bulan,” kata dia 

Sebelumnya, Pertamina sudah meminta tambahan waktu satu bulan untuk merampungkan kajian delapan blok terminasi ini. Perusahaan migas milik negara ini beralasan butuh kajian mendalam terkait penerapan kontrak kerja sama (production sharing contract/PSC) skema bagi hasil kotor (gross split) pada delapan blok ini. Pasalnya, ketika mengajukan usulan pengelolaan seluruh blok ini, perseroan membuat hitungan dengan PSC skema cost recovery.

Selain itu, Pertamina juga mengkhawatirkan dampak dari pembebanan dana pasca tambang (abandonement and site restoration/ASR) dari kontrak lama. Masalah ASR ini jugalah yang mendorong Pertamina meminta tambahan waktu tiga bulan lagi untuk mengkaji Blok East Kalimantan. Pasalnya, beban ASR yang harus ditanggung cukup besar.

“Untuk Blok East Kalimantan, kami minta tambahan waktu karena biaya ASR cukup besar dan mengakibatkan keekonomian kurang bagus,” kata Alam.

Seperti diketahui, kewajiban menyisihkan dana ASR baru diberlakukan untuk kontrak migas baru. Sementara untuk kontrak lama seperti Blok East Kalimantan tidak diwajibkan menyisihkan dana pasca tambang. Padahal, dibutuhkan banyak biaya untuk membersihkan sisa tambang minyak, di antaranya biaya perencanaan teknik, biaya perizinan dan kepatuhan terhadap peraturan, biaya penutupan sumur (selain sumur eksplorasi), biaya pembongkaran, biaya transportasi, biaya penyimpanan, dan biaya pemulihan area.

Di sisi lain, pemerintah mengisyaratkan akan mengalihkan beban pembayaran ASR ini kepada kontraktor baru yang mengelola blok terkait, termasuk Blok East Kalimantan. Tidak hanya itu, lantaran menggunakan kontrak gross split, ASR sepenuhnya menjadi beban kontraktor. Dalam skema cost recovery, pemerintah ikut menanggung beban pasca tambang ini.

“Sudah ada Peraturan Menteri, nanti pada term and condition yang baru diwajibkan ada tanggungan ASR,” kata Direktur Pembinaan Hulu Kementerian Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral (ESDM) Tunggal beberapa waktu lalu.

Sebelumnya, Direktur Eksekutif IPA Marjolijn Wajong mengatakan, kontrak migas yang diteken sebelum 1990 memang tidak mewajibkan penyisihan ASR. Padahal, jika menghitung jumlah sumur yang dibor selama berpuluh-puluh tahun, dana ASR yang diperlukan bakal cukup besar.

Penagihan dana ini kepada salah satu perusahaan, baik yang kontraknya habis ataupun yang mengambil alih pengelolaannya, akan menjadi beban berat.

Bagi kontraktor yang mengambil alih kelola blok habis kontrak ini, pembebanan ASR disebutnya dapat memangkas keekonomian blok tersebut. Sementara jika ditagihkan kepada kontraktor lama tidak ada dana yang dapat disetor mengingat memang tidak ada penyisihan dana sejak awal kontrak. Pemaksaan penagihan juga berpotensi terjadinya dispute antara pemerintah dan kontraktor.

Investor Daily, Page-9, Tuesday, July 4, 2017