Deputy Minister Of Energy And Mineral Resources: Energy Imports Of 15.5 Billion US Dollars For LPG And Crude Oil

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has mapped Indonesia's energy expenditure commodity from the United States worth 15.5 billion US dollars, consisting of LPG and crude ( crude oil) as an effort to negotiate tariffs.

"So, for LPG we will increase imports from the United States. Then, crude ( crude) is also for domestic needs," said Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Yuliot Tanjung quoting Antara.

Yuliot explained that so far Indonesia has imported crude from the United States through other countries. With an energy expenditure plan of US$15.5 billion or around Rp250.87 trillion, he hopes to record the purchase of the crude directly from the United States.

Regarding the volume of crude imports from the US, Yuliot has not been able to confirm it because of the volatile world oil prices, especially amid rising tensions in the Middle East region.

"So, the value will be visible based on volume and also based on the price of ICP (Indonesian Crude Price/Indonesian crude oil reference price) that we set," he said.

Meanwhile, he could not confirm whether Indonesia would import fuel oil (BBM) from the United States. Currently, he continued, Indonesia is working on increasing fuel production from domestic refineries.

With the completion of the repair process and improvement of domestic refinery technology, Indonesia is targeting fuel needs to be met through domestic production, not imports.

When asked about the possibility that Indonesia would import LNG, Yuliot did not close the opportunity.

"LNG is one of those imported from the US," he said.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs (Menko Perekonomian) Airlangga Hartarto revealed that Indonesia plans to purchase energy from the United States (US) with a total of 15.5 billion US dollars.

The Indonesian government plans to increase imports of energy commodities from the United States (US) as part of a strategy to balance the trade balance between the two countries.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia said, although Indonesia's trade balance officially recorded a surplus of around USD 14.5 billion according to the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the listing in the US actually showed that the figure exceeded that.