Dr. Tahar was the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia in July 2016 and become the Vice Minister from October 2016 to October 2019. The Office of the Minister is responsible for all aspects (policy & operational) of oil & gas, mining, electricity, renewable energy sectors of Indonesia and the execution of the Ministry’s vision, mission and value for the Indonesia’s energy landscape, as part of the Energy Independence Vision.

During his career in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr.Tahar has introduced the new scheme of Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Gross Split, a radical departure from the classic PSC Cost Recovery that Indonesia had introduced in early 1960s that made Indonesia the pioneer of PSC and was ever since followed by the most emerging countries to-date.

Dr. Tahar has over fifteen years of experience in hydrodynamic research, design and analysis of offshore floating platforms for exploration and exploitation in oil and gas industry before accepting position as Minister and Vice Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia. For more than 13 years, he worked with the inventors of Spar, TLP, Compliant Tower, Buoyant Tower and Multi Colum Floater.

In 2013, Dr. Tahar co-founded Petroneering, LLC, Houston, Texas to provide services and develop proprietary technology, Multi Column TLP (McT). The McT technology can be used for shallow- and deep-water oil and gas production, offshore wind turbines, offshore gas power plants and environmentally friendly tin mining platforms.

Dr. Tahar has five United States patents and the co-author of the well-recognized and industry standard hydrodynamics program HARP/CHARM3D. He has designed numerous deepwater drilling and production platforms around the world.