Indonesia has drawn up regulations to allow a state agency to import oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for energy security purposes and to allow energy exports to be suspended during emergencies, a decree published on Friday showed.
The regulations said a public service agency is permitted to import crude oil, fuels and LPG when the imports are based on agreements made by the Indonesian government with foreign countries or suppliers.
The agency can import the fuel during "urgent conditions" when national energy security is under threat, the decree said.
The same decree also stated that in "urgent situations", the government is permitted to suspend exports from domestic oil and gas blocks.
The new regulation will grant authority to Lemigas, an agency under the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, to import oil, including from Russia, deputy energy minister Yuliot Tanjung told local media.
An Indonesian energy ministry official said last week that the government was preparing a special import scheme to ship in crude oil from Russia.
(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by David Stanway)
