REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The dismissal of upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas halts the oil and gas industry. No one handled mining contract, plant of development (POD) and export, the Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Rudi Rubiandini said. 

As an effort to overcome the problem, Government will take immediate step by issuing Presidential Regulation to form a unit of acting regulator of upstream oil and gas (UPKUHM). The temporary unit is expected to take BP Migas role. Government, he said, still discussed the plan.

Nevertheless, he ensured that government would not let oil and gas production decline. Government and House of Representatives are scheduled to discuss new permanent corporation to replace BP Migas.

Constitutional Court announced on Tuesday that BP Migas was unconstitutional. All articles related to the regulatory body in Laws No. 22/2001 on Oil and Gas violated the 1945 Constitution and therefore it did not have legal grounds, the Chief Justice of Constitutional Court, Mahmud MD, said.

The Chairman of BP Migas, R. Priyono, regretted Constitutional Court's ruling by saying that the dismissal would cost 70 billion USD in loss. "We have signed 353 contracts that will cost 70 billion USD if they are annulled," Priyono said.

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