Still Promising, Investment Realization Of Oil And Gas Sector In The Third Quarter Reaches 10.61 Billion US Dollars

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

The realization of investment in the oil and gas sector (upstream and downstream) until the end of the third quarter of 2023 has reached 61 percent or 10.61 billion US dollars from the prognosis in 2023 of 17.44 billion US dollars.

Meanwhile, the upstream oil and gas investment figure reached 8.99 billion US dollars from the prognosis target in 2023 of 15.56 billion US dollars.

Then, the downstream oil and gas investment figure amounted to USD 1.6 billion from the prognosis target of USD 1.88 billion or reached 85 percent.

Director General of Oil and Gas of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Tutuka Ariadji said that oil and gas investment opportunities in Indonesia are very wide open, given the huge potential for oil and gas resources.

Moreover, recently there have been several findings of oil and gas sources from Cooperation Contract Contractors (KKKS) operating in Indonesia, including in northern Sumatra, north of Bali Island, north of Lombok Island, and in the Makassar Strait.

From data from January 2023, the prover of oil reserves in Indonesia reached 2.41 billion barrels oil (BBO), while the revenue of natural gas reserves was at 35.3 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

"Our revenue prover is only 10 percent of the potential resources, or it can be interpreted that our potential resource is 10 times that of the revenue prover," said Tutuka, quoted Monday, October 30.

It will be a challenge for the government, said Tutuka, to make this potential resource a revenue prover.

So a deeper study is needed, adding data which is then analyzed and evaluated for drilling in several basins that have large oil potential, such as South Sumatra, East Java, central Sumatra (around the Rokan Block), while natural gas is located in Bintuni, Kutai, and North Sumatra.