Mijnwet art. 5a (1910) — the new Article 5a inserted into the Mijnwet in 1910 — is the amendment requiring the approval of the wetgever (legislature) for any contract the Indies government concluded for the exploitation of mineral resources. The amendment was the direct parliamentary response to the disclosure by Van Heutsz — then governor of Atjeh — of the contract under which the Perlak Petroleum Maatschappij allowed the Koninklijke to work its Atjeh fields for ƒ 2.50 per ton of petroleum extracted.
The Perlak-Koninklijke disclosure
When, soon after the Rengers-era Mijnwet of Cremer had been enacted, Van Heutsz — then governor of Atjeh — reported that the Perlak Petroleum Maatschappij had ceded its Atjeh fields to the Koninklijke for exploitation against a payment of ƒ 2.50 per ton of petroleum extracted, he expressed the opinion that contracts such as the Perlak-Koninklijke contract could equally well be concluded by the Indies government itself, with greater benefit to the treasury.
The amendment
To remove doubts about the legal validity of such government-exploitation contracts, the Mijnwet was amended in 1910 by the insertion of a new Article 5a. Henceforth the contracts the government concluded for mineral exploitation would require the approval of the wetgever — legislature — just as ordinary concession contracts already required the approval of the Staten-Generaal.
Significance for Atjeh
The 1910 amendment brought Atjeh oil contracts within the purview of the Tweede Kamer for the first time. The Atjeh north-coast fields — at Pedirse, Peureula, Pasé and elsewhere — would henceforth be the subject of explicit legislative scrutiny, a development that lies in the background of the later Atjeh oil complex formed by the N.L.A.M., N.K.P.M. and N.P.P.M. fields.
See Also
- Mijnwet
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Koninklijke Petroleum Maatschappij
- Perlak Petroleum Maatschappij
- J. T. Cremer
- Pedirse
- Atjeh oil complex
- 1899
- 1910
Source
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), p. 306.