Oil And Gas Practitioner The Value Of Natural Gas Governance Has Not Sided With The Upstream Sector

Natural gas (intermediate illustration)

JAKARTA - Oil and gas practitioner and lecturer from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja said that investment sustainability in the upstream oil and gas sector must be maintained until it reaches the monetization stage, after new resource findings such as those in the South Andaman Working Area, Aceh Province and North Gang Working Area, East Kalimantan Province.

However, Wawan, Widhyawan's nickname, said that there are real challenges that must be faced in the context of natural gas development in Indonesia. According to him, the current natural gas management is considered to have not shown any partiality from the government to the upstream sector.

This can be seen from the implementation of certain natural gas price policies (HGBT) imposed by the government for several industrial sectors.

"The gas price policy has various interests. We know that LPG is cheap, but makes distortions because the upstream price is actually limited," said Wawan, quoted on Friday, February 2.

In fact, he said, the energy transition era could be a momentum for improving the upstream oil and gas sector in Indonesia. Natural gas is the answer to the energy needs amidst the massive global push to reduce carbon emissions.

According to him, it takes the government's side to develop natural gas potential in Indonesia so that it can be monetized immediately, in addition to the gas infrastructure, which has become a previous challenge.

"The question is, how can Indonesia be a comfortable place? They see from various things, such as resources and ease of doing business. This is very important. The discovery of existing natural gas resources must be a momentum for the government. It is undeniable that natural gas will dominate the findings of oil and gas in Indonesia today and in the future. So gas is a monetization. The issue is monetization. It will be very different if a new field can be monetized for ten years or six years," he said.

Furthermore, Widhyawan revealed, natural gas can be a bridge to the New and Renewable Energy era. Therefore, he admitted that he would not be surprised if the need for natural gas in the future would continue to increase.

"Because there is no other choice in the energy transition era, if we want to use low energy emissions," concluded Wawan.