TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina President Director Nicke Widyawati expressed confidence in the plan to stop LPG imports by 2027. She said this is in line with the firm’s coal gasification program to produce dimethyl ether or DME.

Nicke said Indonesia has a great opportunity to carry out the coal gasification program as it is one of the countries with the largest coal reserves.

“We are sure that with this DME development, we can achieve the government's target to be free of LPG imports by 2027,” said Nicke in her statement on Monday, May 17.

At present, she added, Indonesia was still facing challenges to overcome the current account deficit due to high energy imports. While in fact, the country has large domestic resources that can be used as raw materials for the production of energy.

Pertamina has three priority programs as part of its energy transition and the green economy. Other than reducing LPG imports, it has also strived to reduce imports of diesel fuel through the implementation of Biodiesel B20 since 2016 and continued it to B30 in 2019. The third program is to reduce imports of gasoline fuel.

To ensure the sustainability of existing business lines and address environmental issues from coal gasification, Nicke went on, Pertamina was simultaneously implementing Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology to reduce carbon emissions, which is also part of the Enhance Oil and Gas Recovery program in a bid to increase the country's oil and gas production.

Read: SOEs Minister Positive about National Coal Gasification Program

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