Oil Lifting Declines, Minister Of Energy And Mineral Resources Says Indonesia Has The Potential For New Oil Fields In Buton Of Up To 5 Billion Barrels

Photo illustration. (Doc. Freepic)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif revealed that Indonesia still has oil potential that can be developed to support national energy security.

Arifin said, one of the prospective oil fields is located in Buton, Southeast Sulawesi which is owned by Pertamina and has the potential of up to 5 billion barrels of oil.

"One more prospect is in Buton, Pertamina's Southeast Sulawesi offshore, when we made geoseismics in early 2019-2020, one of which was to find the mappings," said Arifin when met by media crews at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas Building, quoted on Saturday, April 20.

Arifin said that his party had encouraged Pertamina to immediately develop the oil and gas block because it contained heavy oil.

"The oil is heavy, but the amount is large, the potential can be 5 billion barrels, but if it can be taken 20 percent, it's 1 billion barrels. We will encourage this to be accelerated," said Arifin.

Arifin said that actually the development of oil and gas fields to the production stage takes a very long time. However, the acceleration of this development can accelerate the return of investment or the rate of return.

On the other hand, while waiting for the development of oil potential in Buton, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources will also continue to encourage increased national oil and gas production, such as in Cepu and Rokan, which are currently being pursued to increase national oil production.