Template for Comments on Draft Petroleum Law dated 27 June 2016

Chapters 1 & 2
Deadline to submit to General Department of Petroleum, Ministry of Mines and Energy: 15 JULY 2016
Comment author: Kim Natacha
Position: Executive Director
Organization: Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency

Chapter # and title

Article n

Original text

/ /

/ /

Question, Comments,

Reasons, International practices, foreign country

Proposed language

experience

No comment

No comment

...

In the English draft, the word used is

Future generations of Cambodians should also be

revenues should be managed in a way that benefit

impartiality . Because the word

sounds a bit vague, we suggest to replace it with

.

able to benefit of its non-renewable resources, so

them as well.

No comment

No comment

In the English draft, the

The underlined, bold part is missing in the Khmer

All petroleum resources

...

are property of the State

management and

draft.

and shall be under the

article also states :

administration of the
State.

As all natural resources belong to the State in

Cambodia, strategic decisions regarding their

accordance to the Constitution of the Kingdom of

management and administration should be under

the power of the Royal Government of Cambodia

as a whole and not under the power of any one

individual. However, the Prime Minister as head of

the RGC has the power to put decisions into force.

For instance, in Timor Lestes Petroleum Act

(2005), decision made by Timor Leste with

regards to petroleum activities are made by the

Council of Ministers but competence may be

delegated to the Prime Minister (ref. CHAPTER III

PARTICIPATION BY THE STATE

Article 22 Participation by the State in petroleum

activities

1. The decision by Timor-Leste to participate in

Petroleum Operations shall be made by the

Council of Ministers, which may delegate such

competence to the Prime Minister.)

Participatory and inclusive decision making, policy

making and law making is one of the principles
underlying good governance.

Participation of Khmer citizens in public affairs is

also embedded in the Constitution of Cambodia.
Ref. Article 35

Khmer citizens of either sex shall have the right to

participated actively in the political, economic,
social and cultural life of the nation.

Breaking down the second bullet point into more

bullets make it easier to read.

In the English draft, the

Neither natural person nor Should this be interpreted that the State shall be

article provides :

legal person, other than

draft.

allowed to conduct petroleum activities without

the State, shall conduct licence, petroleum agreement and/or letter of

permit ?

The underlined, bold part is missing in the Khmer

No comment

No comment

Based on transparency principle, the Cambodian

have access to information regarding changes in

people and the public should be kept informed and

business operators and/or business operations on
their natural resources. A notice or the Minister of

Mines and Energys letter of agreement should be

made available for reading publicly.

We request consultation of

Participatory and inclusive consultation is to

during the drafting of this

efficient enforcement of the law through the

relevant stakeholders
sub-decree.

ensure good governance and effective and

implementing sub-decrees.

We request consultation of

Participatory and inclusive consultation is to

during the drafting of this

efficient enforcement of the law through the

relevant stakeholders

ensure good governance and effective and

sub-decree.

implementing sub-decrees.