Gas Will Become a Bridge to Energy Transition, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Asks Upstream Oil and Gas Business Actors to Implement CCS/CCUS

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif. (Photo: Maria Trisnawati/VOI)

NUSA DUA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said, during the transition to Net Zero Emissions in 2060, oil and gas will continue to play an important role in securing energy supplies, especially in the fields of transportation and electricity generation.

Gas, he said, will be used to bridge the 100 percent implementation of renewable energy generation.

"Nevertheless, the upstream oil and gas industry must implement emission reduction strategies including the application of clean energy technology such as CCS/CCUS," said Arifin in his speech at the 4th International Convention on Indonesian Upstream Oil and Gas (ICIUOG) 2023, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Thursday September 21.

He explained that current world trends are leaning towards the use of cleaner and renewable energy sources.

According to the BP Energy Outlook, total final consumption, including oil and gas, will peak in the mid to late 2020s in the Accelerated and Net Zero scenarios.

Then, in 2050 final energy consumption will be 15-30 percent below 2019 levels.

In contrast, in the New Momentum scenario which reflects the current world energy system, total final consumption increases until around 2040, after which energy consumption in 2050 will stagnate at around 10 percent above the level of energy consumption in 2019.

In these 3 scenarios (Accelerated, Net Zero, and New Momentum), Arifin emphasized that the use of oil and gas will still be used until 2050, even though direct use is decreasing due to increasing energy efficiency, increasing electricity use, and decarbonization of the electricity sector.

"To meet oil and gas needs, Indonesia is currently focusing its efforts on oil and gas basin exploration considering that Indonesia still has a lot of oil and gas reserves that have not been utilized. Of the 128 hydrocarbon basins, 68 of them have not yet been explored," concluded Arifin.