Indonesia may become net oil importer in 10 years

Indonesia may become net oil importer in 10 years

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo
Yusgiantoro said on Saturday that Indonesia would become a net
oil importer in 10 years time as there were only five billion
barrels left in the country's oil reserves.

He said that with the current production rate of 1.5 million
barrels a day, in 10 years time Indonesia would run out of oil
unless a new source was found.

"Even now Indonesia is already importing oil for its
refineries," Purnomo said in a speech read by his expert staff,
Hardi Prasetyo, Antara reported from Semarang, Central Java.

The speech was read at a seminar organized by Diponegoro
University in Semarang on Saturday.

Even though Indonesia is known as an oil producing country, it
still imports some of the fuel because the country's crude oil is
not suitable for its refinery plants.

He said subsidies provided by the Indonesian government for
oil had made oil prices in the country far cheaper than in other
member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).

The difference in domestic and international oil prices only
encourages oil smuggling, and allows people to squander the
resource, Purnomo said, adding that squandering would force the
country into importing oil much sooner than expected.

Fuel subsidies, which in the 2000 fiscal year are expected to
total Rp 44 trillion (about US$5 billion), have so far been
beneficial only to export oriented industries and the wealthy,
rather than to the needy to whom they were originally intended,
he said.(10)