Increased domestic gas consumption urged

JAKARTA (JP): The president of the state-owned oil company Pertamina, Faisal Abda'oe, called yesterday for a significant increase in domestic gas consumption in a bid to delay Indonesia becoming a net oil importer.

"One way we can stall the country becoming a net oil importer is to use wisely our natural gas, which has larger reserves than oil," Faisal said at the opening ceremony of a two-day symposium on the technology and development of gas and petrochemical products.

He noted that natural gas is also more environmentally friendly as it contains very few pollutants.

Faisal said his company's latest data shows that Indonesia's potential oil resources are estimated at 66.7 billion barrels, while its proven reserves amount to 10.9 billion barrels. "With our daily production of about 1.5 million barrels per day, we will end up being a net oil importer in 17 years," he said.

According to the data, Indonesia's natural gas resources are 266.7 trillion cubic feet, while proven reserves total 114.9 trillion cubic feet. "The reserves will last for 35 years if we continue to produce at the current level of 2.9 trillion cubic feet per annum," he said.

Most of the Indonesian gas has been exported in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas.

Currently, domestic gas only accounts for about two percent of total energy consumption, which is still dominated by oil.

Faisal also cited the application of modern technology and new oil exploration as the other ways of preventing the country becoming a net oil importer.

"We had previously predicted that we we'll start being a net oil importer from now on. But since we have been making efforts to search for new oil reserves and apply modern technology in our explorations we can delay our country from becoming a net importer," he noted.

The two-day symposium was attended by 200 participants, consisting of industrialists, researchers, business people, and government officials.

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Faisal said that it will be difficult for Indonesian oil to stay at US$18 per barrel during the second semester of this year.

"But I'm optimistic that our oil prices will average above the $16.5 per barrel we set in our current state budget," he said, adding that the oil price will possibly average $17 per barrel until the end of this year. (13)