- Pertamina
VIVAnews – The Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) said the nation can no longer depend much on Indonesia's oil and gas reserves as 75 percent of them have been explored and produced.
“Indonesia is blessed with huge natural resources,” said President of IPA, Elizabeth Proust, during the opening of "The 36th IPA Convention and Exhibition" in Jakarta, on Wednesday, May 23.
President Director of Total E&P Indonesie stated that the remaining oil and gas reserves in the country reaches 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 75 percent of which are gas reserves. Indonesia’s oil production continues to decline from 1.3 million barrels in 2001 to 900 thousand barrels in 2011.
The condition, she said, illustrated the old Indonesia’s oil fields and the lack of development of new fields. Therefore, Indonesia must find new oil and gas reserves.
She said that the oil and gas industry needs the government’s support in the form of incentives to develop new fields. The existing oil and gas fields need advanced technology as well as high development costs.
“We must focus on how to increase production from the existing old fields and produce oil reserves,” she said.
Elizabeth Proust explained that the oil and gas industry is the main booster of Indonesia’s economic growth because of its huge contribution to the national economic growth. It supplied the state income by 25 percent and up to US$16 billion of direct investment.
“Therefore, incentives in the upstream oil and gas industry are required,” she said.
