Director General Of Oil And Gas Says Fulfillment Of Domestic Gas Remains A Priority

Director General of Oil and Gas of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Tutuka Ariadji. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Tutuka Ariadji, emphasized that the government still prioritizes meeting natural gas needs for domestic purposes while maintaining its economy.

"Domestic gas needs are met while maintaining the economy of the company and the field," said Tutuka, quoted from ANTARA, Thursday, November 2.

Until August 2023, he continued, the volume of domestic natural gas utilization had reached 3.725 BBTUD.

Since 2012, according to him, the volume and value of utilization of natural gas for domestic is greater than exports.

"Of the total production of 5,446.90 BBTUD, 68 percent is domestic. So, this is a development that leads to national energy independence," he said.

Currently, the largest utilization of natural gas is for the industrial sector, namely 28.52 percent, followed by 12.62 percent fertilizer, and 12.22 percent electricity. The rest, exports by 23.43 percent and pipeline gas 8.18 percent.

"We hope that downstreaming will increase the competitiveness of the national industry as well as national energy security, as well as for national independence and related sectors," he said.

Meanwhile, the export value of LNG products and Indonesian pipeline gas was recorded to have increased after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

For 2022, the export value of LNG Indonesia reached 6.6 billion US dollars, up from 4.6 billion US dollars in 2021.

Meanwhile, the value of gas exports through pipes in 2022 will increase to USD 3.13 billion compared to USD 2.84 billion in 2021.

Tutuka said several export destination countries such as China, Korea, Japan, Taipei, and China showed increasing demand.

"For Indonesia, the biggest he (China), took it. Then, for natural gas export by pipeline with the most pipes to Singapore, then to Malaysia. Of course, this provides a fairly large total revenue. So, the export value for 2022 is approximately 6.6 billion US dollars, up from 4.6 billion in 2021," he said in front of representatives of editors, reporters, and natural gas business players.

Tutuka added that the current national natural gas reserves are quite large, namely 54,830.40 BSCF or 54.83 TSCF which were declared PROven, probable, and possible (3 P) from oil and gas fields spread across Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

According to him, the government continues to strive to increase these reserves by providing convenience in exploring both in terms of communication, the process of controlling the work area, managing the work area, and incentives.

Optimism of the findings of natural gas reserves, he continued, was followed by an increase in the volume of domestic natural gas utilization.

Along with the energy transition roadmap, Tutuka hopes that domestic renewable energy development can be encouraged by utilizing the current fossil energy potential.

"There is a lot of gas potential. We need to take advantage of the gas for capital to live in gas to renewable energy in the future," he said.