Bahlil Compares Indonesia's Lifting Performances In 2024 And 1990s

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia (Photo: Doc. VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia revealed that the performance of Indonesia's oil and gas lifting in 2024 was inversely proportional to its performance in the 1990s.

According to him, in 1996-1997 the Republic of Indonesia had reached its peak in terms of oil and gas lifting, where oil lifting at that time reached 1.6 million barrels of oil per day (BOPD). In addition to lifting, consumption of Indonesian crude oil at that time was recorded at only 600 to 700.000 BOPD.

"At that time 40-50 percent of state revenue came from oil and gas. That's why we entered the OPEC country," Bahlil said in his remarks at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Wednesday, October 9.

Bahlil continued, then there was Reform in 1998 which caused Pertamina to no longer be directly under the president but under the auspices of the Ministry of SOEs accompanied by a decrease in lifting.

Meanwhile, in 2023, Indonesia's oil lifting will decline to only 605,000 BOPD. Bahlil continued, lifting in 2024 is also not much different from the previous year. Meanwhile, in terms of consumption, Indonesia's oil consumption recorded 1.6 million BOPD with 1 million in its image imported from oil-producing countries.

"So it was reversed 30 years ago between lifting and exports and lifting and imports in 2023. So in 1996-1997 we export 1 million barrels, in 2023 we import 1 million barrels. This is the condition of our nation," he explained.

Furthermore, Bahlil said that currently the government is encouraging KKKS to intervene in technology on Indonesian oil wells. He gave an example of the interence carried out by ExxonMobil which was able to increase its lifting to 150,000 BOPDs with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology.

With this technology, he said, it can increase lifting by 20 percent.

"If this 600,000 times 20 percent, we can get 120,000 barrels and we have collaborated with several companies from America, China, one of the technological interventions is EOR," said Bahlil.