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general mining should not change the work contracts that have already been signed. "We hope there will be no problem. But there might be some changes, for instance, obligatory payments from mining companies will no longer go to the central government but to the provincial governments," Wahju said.
Dow Jones Newswires February 28, 2000

MOBIL OIL INDONESIA: LNG OUTPUT NOT INTERRUPTED IN ACEH
JAKARTA (Dow Jones-May 4)--Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc., a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), said Thursday that it hasn't reduced the output at its 12.8 million-metric-ton-a-year liquefied natural gas plant near the town of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, due to civil unrest in the province.
Mobil Oil Indonesia's president, Ron Wilson, said that some employees had been withdrawn for safety reasons but that the plant was operating as normal. As of May 5, the company announced that exploration activities had been curtailed.

INDONESIA WAHID NAMES BAIHAKI HAKIM NEW PERTAMINA PRESIDENT
JAKARTA -- Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid named former PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (P.CXX) President Baihaki Hakim as the new president director of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina (P.PTM). Baihaki and three other new Pertamina appointees are being sworn in early afternoon Monday. The other three are Arifin Nawawi, named director of processing, Gatot Karyoso as the new director of exploration, and Syahrial Daud as the new director of general affairs. Baihaki's appointment is long expected and follows a major reshuffling by Wahid of other key positions in Indonesia's state-owned companies. Wahid has already made major strides to clean up state-owned companies that have been plagued by corruption and collusion linked to relatives and friends of former President Suharto. An audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers last year said that Pertamina had lost $4.9 billion between March 1996 and 1998 due to "inefficiencies." Wahid said the new Pertamina executives must concentrate on making the company more internationally competitive as the market becomes increasingly globalized. He also urged Pertamina to reexamine oil wells that had previously been declared unproductive to see if they could be tapped again.
Wahid named seven new Pertamina executives in total, including Harry Purnomo as director of logistics, Ainun Naim as director of finance, and Ilham Syarif, director of oil contracts.
NEWMONT, INDONESIAN MINAHASA REACH A SETTLEMENT
TONDANO, Indonesia - An Indonesian regional government and Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. reached an out-of-court settlement on a tax dispute that threatened to close the U.S. multinational's gold mine here and worried other foreign investors in this resource-rich country. The case - which pitted Newmont against a regency-level administration on the island of Sulawesi - has been viewed as a crucible of how regional governments will treat foreign companies as Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid moves to decentralize power away from Jakarta. The Minahasa regency sued Newmont in a local court last year for about $8 million in taxes and damages the regency said it was owed on waste rock and soil removed from Newmont's mining site. The court earlier this month ordered Newmont to shut its gold mine pending the resolution of the tax dispute. But Indonesia's Supreme Court overruled the closure order last week. Newmont, backed by the central government, has argued it is exempted from paying taxes on "overburden" materials in the mining contract it signed with Jakarta. According to the terms of Wednesday's settlement, Newmont agreed to pay about $500,000 in taxes on 379,000 tons of waste material from the mine that a combined central- and local-government verification team said should be taxed. Minahasa Regent D. Tanor, in turn, agreed to drop the regency's lawsuit against Newmont and acknowledged other waste materials removed by Newmont didn't fall under Minahasa's local tax code. "We believe our action upholds the effort we have made to protect the interests of the people of Minahasa," said Mr. Tanor.
By Jay Solomon, Staff Reporter, Asian Wall Street Journal April 19, 2000