Minister Bahlil: Investors Found to Build Crude Oil Storage Facilities

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Energy and Mineral Resources Minister (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia has said there are foreign investors to build storage or crude oil storage facilities in Indonesia. “The investment is already there, the investors are there,” he said when asked at the ESDM Ministry office in Jakarta on Wednesday evening. He stated that the investors who will be involved in building storage in Indonesia will be a mix of foreign and domestic investors. He added that the foreign investor is not from the United States (US). “The investment is mixed from domestic and foreign, but not the US. The ones building (storage) are private,” he said. The construction of crude oil storage aims to boost Indonesia’s energy resilience. Through the storage build, the government will increase the maximum oil storage capacity from 25–26 days to 90 days, or three months. “Mr President (Prabowo Subianto) has given instructions to build storage promptly. We need survival. If not, we will remain dependent,” Bahlil said. Indonesia’s energy resilience has become a focus of public attention amid the war between the United States-Israel and Iran. On Saturday (28/2), the US and Israel launched a series of attacks on several targets in Iran, including Tehran. The attacks on Iran by the US and Israel reportedly caused damage and civilian casualties. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel and US military facilities in the region. On Sunday (1/3), US President Donald Trump claimed that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had died in the joint US-Israel strike. Iran’s state television confirmed the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a result of the attack. Iranian media reported that the Strait of Hormuz had been effectively closed following the US-Israel strikes, although no formal blocking announcement had been made. The Strait of Hormuz handles around one-fifth of the world’s oil trade as well as large volumes of LNG exports from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Around 20 percent of global daily oil consumption, or about 20 million barrels, passes through that corridor.