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Opinion November 02, 2007

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"Open Sourcing" oil and gas sector Opinion

New prophet, who
Eddy Satriya, Jakarta cares?
Misconceptions
It is no big surprise that Indonesia's Upstream Oil and about carbon
Gas Regulatory Body (BP Migas) is now struggling to emissions
select the best consultant to "fix" its financial report.
Nor did we wonder when the Downstream Oil and Editorial
Online Edition Gas Regulatory Body (BPH Migas) and the
Directorate General of Oil and Gas recently came The death penalty
Latest News dilemma
into dispute over a tendering process.
Images
Comments Via Your Letter
SMS What does really matter is that while the oil price has
recently reached a historical high of US$93 per Against Al-Qiyadah
Print Edition barrel, our government has been preoccupied with
City non-technical concerns instead of focusing efforts on Fauzi's priorities
Bali increasing production back to 1.3 millions barrel per
Opinion day. Sadly, the country fails again to maximize Readers' Forum
The Archipelago revenues from oil and gas production, and the
government is still trapped by fuel and electricity Democracy, Muslim
National
subsidies. countries
World
Business
SMS
Features The government said it had prepared several
Sports measures to cope with the impact of rising oil prices, New prophet?
Supplement but the question remains on how to get out of the oil
Gallery price trap.
Weekly Roundup
Past Editions In fact, there are only two options left. First is to
Members Area reduce oil-based energy consumption, and second is
Register to increase oil production. The first option, however,
is almost impossible due to gross energy efficiency.
Login
Archives
Who's Who The government should launch concerted efforts to
increase oil production, which has long remained
Resources below one million barrels a day.
Acronyms
Addresses But increasing oil production quickly is not an easy
Indonesian Cabinet task, since it often takes five to seven years before
Indonesian History explorations lead to oil output. Moreover, we need
RI-GAM MOU unconventional ways to jack up our production.
State of the Nation
Address 2007 Take Rob McEwen, for example, the chief executive
President's officer of Goldcorp Inc., Canada. McEwen struggled
Inauguration Speech to keep his Toronto-based gold mining company from
Tsunami Declaration bankruptcy due to a series of strikes, mountains of
Links debt and an extremely high cost of production.
Where to go
About Us When most of the analysts assumed that the
Company Info company was dying, McEwen borrowed a page from
Online Media Kit Linux, the computer operating system company that
saw astonishing development after opening and

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The Jakarta Post - "Open Sourcing" oil and gas sector Page 2 of 4

Print Media Kit sharing the source code for its computer programs.
Contact Us
In order to arrive at accurate estimates of gold's value Oil & Gas
and exact location, McEwen decided in March 2000 Companies
to put all of his company's geology data in a digital Major operators in
file and share it with the world. He unveiled "Goldcorp the middle East
Special Section Challenges" with a total $575,000 in prize money to Africa and the Arab
Jakarta Election the winner with the best methods and estimates. world
www.gulfoilandgas.com
Associates
More than 1,400 scientists, engineers and geologists
around the globe downloaded the company's data
and completed a virtual exploration. The winners Indonesia Forex
successfully developed a more powerful 3-D by PayPal
graphical depiction of the mine without ever visiting Trade currencies &
the site. metals by paypal
EUR / GBP / USD /
In short, by applying an open source approach Gold & more
McEwen successfully kept Goldcorp Inc. from www.AvaFX.com
Search bankruptcy while also showing the world that
exposing super-secret data doesn't necessarily harm
a company's interests.
Uk Offshore Oil
Map
In Indonesia, what really matters now is changing the
Detailed oil and gas
mindset of the officials in charge of oil and gas
development. infrastructure fields,
& operators incl. 5
charts
Despite the fact that Indonesia is no longer a net oil www.woodmac.com/energ
exporting country, the government should continue
focusing efforts on improving governance in the
hydrocarbon sector. Only with such new approaches
will the national oil and gas industry regain their roles Oil and Gas Jobs
in the national economy. Failing to do so will destroy Fair
all opportunities to increase oil production and cash Online recruitment
more dollars for the state budget. + Job search for oil
field, rig,
Therefore, all stakeholders of the oil and gas industry engineering sales
have to work to identify and remove constraints while www.PennEnergyJOBS.co
also introducing "more open" approaches to increase
oil reserves and pump the production rate back at
least 1.3 million barrels per day.

Since gas price is practically pegged to oil price, the

same approach must also be applied to natural gas
business and its product. This is the essence of
sectoral reform in oil and gas industry.

The country has already suffered from an "oily"

system. The reluctance in putting relevant information
on the table -- such as the volume of gas reserves --
has halted the East Kalimantan-Java Gas Pipeline
project. Also, a lack of openness in policy
implementation on LNG usage priority has closed
down tens of factories in Java and Sumatra at a time
when we've renewed our commitment to Japanese
industries by promising millions of tons of LNG
cargoes for the next ten years.

Finally, I'm reminded of the question of one my

macroeconomics professors in the U.S. During my
first fall semester in 1995, he asked me about what
the first Iraq war meant to me as an Indonesian. I
replied, "Thank God, it improved my salary and the

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country cashed in on oil windfall for economic

development". Indeed, rocketing oil prices are
supposed to make Indonesia prosperous, not
impoverished.

The writer is a senior infrastructure economist at the

Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. The views
here are personal. He can be contacted at
satriyaeddy@gmail.com.

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