Amidst the rise of electrical vehicles, the oil and gas industry remains important for Indonesia in the future. While fuel demand is predicted to decrease, the oil and gas industry will still be needed to develop Indonesia’s petrochemical industry and President Joko Widodo is aiming to stop the import of petrochemical products in 2024.
Indonesia still has a huge oil and gas potential to be explored. The dream of millennial’s to work within the industry remains bright and full of hope. Nayesha Safira Elta is one of the Indonesian millennials who work in the oil and gas industry. According to Nayesha, the assumption that the oil and gas industry is a sunset industry at the moment is not true.
"We know that there are many basins that have not been explored yet and I think there is still a big potential in the Indonesia oil and gas industry. But it also needs many high-quality human resources to support the target of the Government of Indonesia for the 1-million-barrels of oil per day to be achieved in 2030," said Yesha during the NEXTGen Forum, Jakarta, on Tuesday 25 February 2020.
Related to the Government’s target of 1-million-barrels of oil per day in 2030, SKK Migas have developed some planned actions which need to be performed by all of the respective parties within the industry. These actions are maintaining base production, ensuring the transformation from reserves to production, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and exploration.
Oil and gas are non-renewable energy resources and cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a quick enough pace to keep up with consumption. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources have stated that Indonesia's oil reserves of around 3,77 billion barrels will run out in about 9 years at today's production rate, while for the gas reserves of 77 trillion cubic feet (TCF), these reserves will be exhausted in around 21 years.
The Indonesian Government continues to accelerate the transition to renewable energy to secure domestic energy supply. Indonesia is set to pursue a renewable energy portion of 23% in the national energy mix in 2025. The declining oil and gas reserves in the last few years have pushed the Government to swiftly develop renewable energy resources.
After years of declining oil production, Indonesia once again aims to reach 1 million barrels of oil per day (BOPD) of production in 2030. A new giant oil and gas discovery is needed to realize this target.
The Upstream Oil and Gas Special Task Force (SKK Migas) have stated that new investment is needed to increase Indonesia’s oil and gas production. Since last year, SKK Migas has rolled out a road show presenting the country’s oil and gas potential to several international oil companies. They claim that Indonesia is still one of the attractive oil and gas investment destination countries for global investors.
It is challenging for Indonesia to meet its oil and gas lifting target, and even more challenging to boost it up. In 2019, based on data from The Upstream Oil and Gas Special Task Force (SKK Migas), Indonesia’s oil and gas lifting is below its targets which are 746,000 barrel oil per day (BOPD) and 5,934 million standard cubic feet per day of gas (MMSCFD), while the targets are 775,000 BOPD and 7,000 MMSCFD, respectively.
As its oil production continues to plummet, gas has become an opportunity for Indonesia to meet its energy demand. Therefore, gas is no longer being treated as a source of revenue for Indonesia, but as a key driver of its economy and industrial growth.
