RI Raises Gas Lifting Target
23 June 2015 12:04 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives (DPR) and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources yesterday agreed on the lower and upper limit of gas lifting. In the 2016 State Budget draft, gas lifting is set at 1.1 million to 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD).
Satya Yudha, deputy chairman of the House's Energy Commission, said the numbers set are higher than the government's proposal of 1.1 million to 1.2 million BOEPD.
Energy Minister Sudirman Said admitted that the proposed lifting figures for 2016 are relatively stagnant when compared to this year's. The moderate projection is based on the fact that the government is still working on improving the governance of natural gas as well as gas production infrastructure.
The problem currently faced by the national gas industry, the minister said, is low domestic absorption due to non-prioritized utilization. As a result, most of the LNG production is still export-oriented.
In addition, the benchmark price for domestic gas remains ununiformed, "relying on prices set in sales-and-purchase agreements that mostly still refer to the ability of highest absorbents; namely power generation and fertilizer industries," he said.
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