Conflict Heats Up With Israel, Director General Of Oil And Gas Ensures Indonesia Does Not Import Oil From Iran

Director General of Oil and Gas Tutuka Ariadji (photo: Doc. Maria trisnawati/voi)

JAKARTA - Director General of Oil and Gas (Migas) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Tutuka Ariadji ensured that Indonesia does not have cooperation in importing fuel and crude with Iran following the conflict between Iran and Islam which is heating up.

"There is no (import from Iran). Even though we are collaborating with Iran, it is not easy to do because the implementation does not exist until now," said Tutuka in a webinar entitled "The Fun Talk of the Impact of the Iran-Israeli Conflict on the Indonesian Economy", Monday, April 15.

Tutuka explained that the Indonesian oil and gas business entity Pertamina imports the most fuel from Singapore by 56.58 percent and Malaysia occupies the second position at 26.75 percent. Meanwhile, LPG is mostly imported from the United States by 45 percent and followed by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

"So here we see that there are countries that can be involved in conflicts, for example in LPG with America that are related to imports of LPG. For crude Indonesia imports, most of them are from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. So Saudi Arabia certainly has an effect," continued Tutuka.

Regarding LPG imports originating from conflict-related countries, continued Tutuka, his party together with Pertamina are conducting various simulations to anticipate the escalation of the conflict between Iran and Israel.

"If there is an escalation, we anticipate that we will identify where our imported sources are turned. We are looking for other places. That's what's important," continued Tutuka.

On the same occasion, Tutuka also said that the fuel price had not changed until June 2024 even though there was a conflict in the Middle East. "Yes, fuel prices are still like that (not changing until June)," added Tutuka.

According to him, the government is currently waiting for Israel's response to an attack from Iran. Previously, Iran had fired 300 missiles and drones on Saturday night local time in the midst of Iran's latest post-Israeli retaliation for an attack on April 1 on the Iranian Embassy in Syria.