Indonesia's oil-saving efforts going nowhere

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Big consumers who are reluctant to save gasoline and diesel fuel have become the thorn in the side of the transportation sector's oil-based conservation efforts, but as fuel prices continue to increase experts now are calling for tighter regulations to reverse the situation.

"If the government wants to save energy (gasoline and diesel) it should start with the transportation sector," said the chairman of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) Suyono Dikun on Wednesday.

Government data shows that the sector is responsible for about half of the country's total gasoline and diesel fuel consumption, beating out the industrial and household sectors.

To arrest wasteful consumption of the rapidly depleting oil- based fuel and cut back on subsidies, the government is gradually increasing diesel and gasoline prices until, by 2004, their prices will be entirely controlled by free market forces.

May's fuel price hike was the third this year. But since January 2000, a 50 percent increase in fuel prices had done little to encourage discussion of fuel conservation efforts.

"The tendency, in fact, is that the transportation sector is getting even more wasteful," Suyono said.

He pointed out that there were actually more cars on the roads and greater numbers of traffic jams in big cities, due in part to poor road management and planning.

"The more time one spends on the road because of the lousy traffic management, the more one wastes fuel," he explained.

He said another example of bad policies was the emphasis on the development of costly toll roads rather than on railways.

Some 80 percent of goods transported across the country went by truck although trains were a much cheaper means of transportation, he said.

Currently the gasoline and diesel conservation campaign rested more with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which however, had failed to spread the message outside of the industrial fuel users, he said.

An official at the ministry stated that "turf battles" among ministries over who should regulate what, slowed the campaign.

To regulate the transportation sector more effectively, Suyono called for a national transportation body. It should include representatives from the private sector, the community and the government.

Ministry of Transportation Director General of Land Transportation, Iskandar Abdullah agreed.

He said an integrated transportation policy was the key to promoting oil conservation but admitted that the issue was not a high priority in his ministry, because there were so many short term financial priorities to consider at present.

"We have to prioritize the financial aspects, because the fact is, our country has financial problems," he said.

A tight budget was the reason why the government scrapped plans to build Jakarta a rapid mass transit system. "We just can't afford it," Iskandar said.

Instead, he added, policies should support the use of public transportation.

However, due to the poor condition of most buses, commuters who can afford to take cars or taxis almost always do. The only people who use public transportation are forced to out of financial neccessity.

Iskandar suggested some regulations that would discourage motorists from using private cars in favor of traveling by public transportation.

The Association of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) blamed the government's lack of support as the reason for its shortcomings in oil conservation.

Organda chairman Aip Syafruddin said bus owners were more than willing to use compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of gasoline or diesel fuel.

CNG costs Rp 450 a liter and is not oil-based as compared to Rp 1,450 for diesel fuel.

Aip said the price difference was the greatest incentive.

"We have some 100,000 vehicles consuming 50 liters of fuel daily, we can save up to five million liters of gasoline and diesel a day, if we switch to CNG-fueled buses," he explained

But the absence of an adequate number of CNG filling stations in Jakarta, he said, was a disincentive for bus owners to convert.

According to him, state owned oil and gas company Pertamina refused to build any new CNG stations after having set up 17 stations of which only six are operable.

For its part, Pertamina said that the customer base at its CNG stations was too low to justify building new ones.

Organda also worked with the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) and the government to cut down gasoline and diesel fuel consumption, Aip continued.

Together they set standards for Organda's services and their vehicles, which will include an emission standard.