KESDM Calculates The Potential Transfer Of Elpiji Subsidy To DME

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) opens the opportunity to transfer 3 kg LPG subsidies to dimethyl ether (DME).

For information, DME is a downstream coal product that can be used to replace the role of LPG.

Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Yuliot Tanjungf, said that his party was currently calculating if the policy was implemented.

"We are still calculating how much HPP (the cost of goods sold) is for DME. If there is a subsidy, it is a diversion of subsidies from LPG at this time," said Yuliot to the media crew at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Office, Friday, December 12.

Previously, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia said the construction of the DME project was quite urgent considering the need for domestic LPG is increasing from year to year.

He projects that LPG consumption in 2026 will increase to 10 million tons.

Meanwhile, national production only ranges from 1.3 to 1.4 million tons per year.

Moreover, the petrochemical factory PT Lotte Chemical Indonesia (LCI) needs an LPG of 1.2 million tons for its production needs.

"Like it or not, we have to substitute for imports, what is the method? DME," Bahlil explained.

The government is indeed working on the discourse of replacing LPG to DME. This was done in order to reduce public dependence on LPG gas.

That way, LPG imports are expected to be more suppressed in the future.

Pemerintah melalui Badan Pengelola Investasi (BPI) Daya Anagata Nusantara (Danantara) siap melakukan hilirisasi batu bara melalui gasifikasi menjadi dimethyl ether (DME).

Sementara itu, Senior Director Oil & Gas and Petrochemical Danantara Indonesia Wiko Migantoro mengatakan, proyek gasifikasi ini membutuhkan subsidi agar lebih ekonomis dan setara dengan elpiji yang selama ini digunakan oleh masyarakat.

"Sekarang elpiji juga subsidi, kan? Kalau gambarannya sih, kira-kira nanti sama, memerlukan subsidi juga," ujar Wiko, Rabu, 10 Desember.

Dia menambahkan, saat ini Danantara bersama Satuan Tugas (Satgas) Percepatan Hilirisasi mengkaji pola distribusi dan skema komersialisasi yang menarik.

"Diperlukan banyak dukungan dari pemerintah ya, agar kelak harga dari DME ini bisa lebih kurang sama dengan elpiji yang sekarang," tandas Wiko.

The government through the Investment Management Agency (BPI) Daya Anagata Nusantara (Dantara) is ready to downstream coal through gasification into dimethyl ether (DME).

Meanwhile, Senior Director of Oil & Gas and Petrochemical Danantara Indonesia Wiko Migantoro said that this gasification project requires subsidies to be more economical and equivalent to LPG which has been used by the community.

"Now LPG is also subsidized, right? If the picture is, it will be the same, it will require subsidies too," said Wiko, Wednesday, December 10.

He added that currently Danantara together with the Task Force for the Acceleration of Downstreaming is reviewing distribution patterns and interesting commercialization schemes.

"There is a lot of support from the government, so that in the future the price of this DME can be more or less the same as the current LPG," said Wiko.