House to Summon China's PetroChina and Others on Oil Block Interests and Revenues

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives (DPR) is committed to summoning parties, including the Chinese petrochemical company PetroChina, to resolve the polemic over the mandatory 10% participating local interest and revenue-sharing disbursement on natural resources management. Other parties to be summoned are the Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas) and the Directorate General of Oil and Gas at the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

This commitment was affirmed during its public hearing in Jakarta on Thursday, August 20, 2026. The hearing featured the Houses Commission XII – dealing with energy, mineral resources, environment, and investment issues – with the budget board of the Jambi Province's Regional House of Representatives.

Sumatra's Jambi legislature questioned the province's participation interest in the Jabung Block, which reportedly only realized 7 percent. The block reportedly has a potential of over 290 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), according to various sources.

Commission XII of the House explained that the participating interest mechanism essentially has two regulatory options: active and passive scheme. Deputy Chairperson of Commission XII, Sugeng Suparwoto, said the House is ready to be a problem solver for complaints on local revenue governance.

The active scheme requires the regional government to provide capital in proportion to its shareholding. However, since 2016, a passive scheme has been available, allowing the operator to cover the region's capital obligations in advance.

"De jure, regions hold full participation rights, but de facto, the implementation of their obligations is adjusted to the options chosen," Sugeng said, as quoted from the DPR website on Thursday.

Regarding the questioned 7 percent interest, the DPR will investigate whether the determination is final or a combination of active and passive schemes. He believes the scheme can be made flexible, for example, with 7% passive and 3% active, based on regional capital contributions.

"For the sake of fairness and the smooth and effective running of the project, Commission XII has agreed to follow up on this by summoning all stakeholders, from SKK Migas, the Directorate General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, to operators such as PetroChina, along with the Jambi Regional Government and Regional House, to sit down together," Sugeng said.

Beyond the participating interest issue, the hearing also examined the controversy surrounding the distribution of the regional revenue-sharing scheme, which is considered not to have been paid transparently. The House acknowledged that other regions, such as East Kalimantan, have also raised issues of delays and potential discrepancies.

In response to this controversy, the House will summarize regional demands. These include transparency in oil and gas revenue sharing and the transfer of 10% of the Jabung Block's participating interest to a Jambi regionally owned enterprise.