Indonesia on Oil, Gas Reserves Emergency
10 July 2015 16:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives' (DPR) Energy Commission estimates that oil and gas reserves will drop in the near future. Out of 157 exploration drilling plans scheduled for this year, only 26 have been carried out.
"This is a systemic problem," commission member Kurtubi told Tempo yesterday.
Kurtubi estimates that Indonesia will run out of oil and gas reserves in less than 20 years; putting the country in a state of energy emergency. The reason for this, he said, is lack of exploration activities that have been going on since 15 years ago.
Meanwhile, the National Energy Board said Indonesia's oil reserves will be depleted in the next 12.5 years. No good news has come from the gas sector either albeit it has a longer time before reserves deplete entirely.
The Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas) said that efforts to discover new oil and gas reserves remain stalled. The task force estimated that only 44 percent of targeted exploration has been accomplished.
SKK Migas chief Amien Sunaryadi said land acquisition and location permit issuances are the main inhibitors of exploration activities. Drilling and exploration are also hampered by repetitive procurements of drilling infrastructure.
This year so far, oil and gas lifting volume has reached 763,000 barrels per day, just 92.6 percent of the target set in the 2015 Amended State Budget.
ROBBY IRFANY
