Natural Gas is Considered to Play an Important Role as an Energy Transition Bridge

Officers are walking in the area of the R/S gas station sector 01 (Ballondes) during routine maintenance in Karangrejo Sustainable Tourism Village, Borobudur, Magelang, Central Java. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Natural gas commodity is considered to have an important role until some time in the future as a bridge in the transition process from fossil energy to New and Renewable Energy (EBT) considering that currently natural gas in the primary energy mix is ​​only 19.3 percent and is projected to continue to increase.

Through the General National Energy Plan (RUEN), the government projects that the share of natural gas in Indonesia's primary energy mix in 2050 will reach 24 percent, or the second largest after NRE.

Oil and gas observer from Trisakti University Pri Agung Rakhmanto said that the discovery of Indonesia's oil and gas reserves for the 2020-2021 period was dominated by natural gas, such as Bronang-02, West Belut, Parang-02, Rembang-3B, and Wolai-02.

The National Strategic Program (PSN) of the energy sector is also the majority of natural gas, such as the Abadi Masela Project and the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD).

In the 2012-2021 period, he continued, the portion of gas utilization for domestic purposes increased by an average of 1.5 percent per year. In 2012 the share of domestic gas was still 52 percent and increased to 65 percent in 2021.

"The industrial and fertilizer sectors are the main contributors in increasing domestic natural gas consumption with 26.68 percent and 12.73 percent respectively of the total national gas production", he said as quoted by Antara, Monday, November 21.

Previously, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif also said the use of gas would be the main alternative during the transition period. Moreover, in recent years many gas reserves have been found which can be a big capital to achieve Indonesia's energy security.

Optimizing the use of natural gas in the energy transition era will be discussed more comprehensively at the 3rd International Convention on Indonesian Upstream Oil and Gas 2022 (IOG 2022) in Nusa Dua, Badung, Bali, on ​​November 23-25 2022.

The hybrid international convention will be attended by 120 national and international speakers with a target of 10,000 online participants and 1,200 offline participants.

The chairman of the IOG 2022 Organizing Committee, Mohammad Kemal said, the IOG event was the first hybrid event after two years before it was virtual.

The IOG Convention 2022, he continued, is one of the important pillars in the effort to achieve the oil production target of one million barrels per day and 12 BSCFD gas by 2030.

Three major concepts will be presented at the IOG 2022 event, namely Economic Recovery, Energy Security, and Energy Transition.

"This is linear with government programs and Indonesia's more sustainable targets", he said.

He hopes that the series of discussions to increase national oil and gas production and the energy transition that has been carried out by various entities and associations in the upstream oil and gas sector will be further sharpened in the IOG 2022 activities.

"Hopefully, in the remainder of 2022, the upstream oil and gas industry has completed the things that must be improved and prepared for 2023 opportunities to run better", he said.

State officials scheduled to attend IOG 2022 include Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya, and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif.