National Young Energy Council: Indonesia Prone To Pupuk Crisis Due To Low Natural Gas Production

Member of the Expert Council of the National Youth Energy Council Community or known as the Youth Energy & Environment Council (YeC), Dr. Tepy Septyana. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - Member of the Expert Council of the National Youth Energy Council Community or known as the Youth Energy & Environment Council (YeC), Dr. Tepy Septyana in the YeC discussion conveyed that there is a gap between domestic fertilizer production and fertilizer needs in Indonesia.

Fertilizer needs are a very relevant and important issue in supporting our food security program specifically to increase agricultural production in Indonesia.

The data reviewed by YeC shows that the need for fertilizer in Indonesia reaches around 24 million tons per year. However, domestic production is only able to meet around 14 million tons per year.

"We see that there is still a gap of around 10 million tons of the total need of around 24 million tons. The increase in domestic production and subsidy programs by the government will help cover the gap," said Tepy, who graduated from Imperial College London's underground science, quoted Friday, January 31.

Regarding this issue, there are two main programs for President Prabowo Subianto that are directly related to increasing national agricultural production, namely, the Food Estate and Free Nutrition Food.

The need for agricultural production is expected to increase significantly because the implementation of this program directly targets the food needs of the Indonesian people. Therefore, according to Tepy, the need for fertilizer will also increase to increase the productivity of existing agricultural land or what will be opened later.

Furthermore, domestic fertilizer production needs cannot be separated from natural gas needs because natural gas is needed as a source of energy as well as the main raw materials in the fertilizer manufacturing process in Indonesia. The development of fertilizer production means an increase in the need for natural gas which is estimated to require nearly 1 billion cubic feet per day (BSCFD) to support fertilizer production by 2030.

Seeing this, Tepy highlighted the importance of ensuring that the national gas production improvement program could be met so that the national fertilizer supply target for agriculture could be met. This graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) stated that gas production must be increased by continuing to improve exploration and development programs for natural gas fields in Indonesia.

Tepy as a representative of YeC, also emphasized the importance of good collaboration between the government as a regulator, BUMN and also the private sector as an operator to work hand in hand in achieving the national gas production increase target, which will directly determine the realization of increasing national fertilizer production.