Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia has suspended Director General of Oil and Gas, Achmad Muchtasyar, as of today, February 11, 2025, following a raid by investigators of the Attorney General’s Office at the Oil&Gas Directorate General over alleged corruption in the management of crude oil and refinery products.
Acting Spokesman of ESDM Ministry, Chrisnawan Anditya, confirmed the suspension of Muchtasyar, saying that adjustment of positions within an organization is a common practice. Muchtasyar was inaugurated as Director General of Oil and Gas on January 16, 2025 and served until Monday, February 10, 2025 when AGO investigators raided the Oil&Gas Directorate General.
“As part of the acceleration towards a resilient and sustainable organization capable of addressing future challenges, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has made adjustments to several high-ranking officials,“ he spoke to Indonesia Business Post on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
In response to these developments, Bahlil has appointed Tri Winarno, currently serving as Director General of Mineral and Coal (Minerba), as the Acting Director General of Oil and Gas.
As previously reported, AGO investigators raided three rooms of the Office of the Directorate General of Oil & Gas at the ESDM ministry located on Jalan Rasuna Said in Central Jakarta on Monday.
AGO Spokesman Harli Siregar said the raid was related to alleged corruption in the management of crude oil and refinery products at State energy company PT Pertamina. The alleged corruption took place in the subholding and owners of the 2018-2023 oil and gas contract (KKKS).
He cited that in 2018, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources issued Ministerial Regulation (Permen) No. 42/2018 on the priority of petroleum utilization to meet domestic needs. This regulation was made with the aim that PT Pertamina is required to seek domestically produced oil to meet domestic needs and private cooperation contracts or KKKS.
“It is mandatory to offer private KKKS oil shares to PT Pertamina,” Harli said on Monday, February 10, 2025.
According to him, referring to the provision, if the offer is rejected by Pertamina, then the rejection is used to submit an export recommendation. This procedure is required as one of the requirements to obtain export approval.
In its implementation, private KKKS and Pertamina, tried to avoid agreements during the offer period which was carried out in various ways. According to him, from here on there will be an element of unlawful acts.
Harli said that the raid by the AGO was one of the steps taken by investigators to shed light on the case.
He cited that investigators searched three rooms, namely the room of the Director of Upstream Business Development, the Director of Downstream Business Development and the Secretary of the Directorate General of Oil and Gas.
Investigators seized a number of pieces of evidence in the form of five boxes of documents. There is also electronic evidence in the form of 15 mobile phones and one laptop and four soft files.
