Minister Bahlil: Oil imports from the United States have already begun

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia has said that crude oil imports from the United States, as part of diversifying away from Middle Eastern sources, are proceeding gradually. ‘It’s starting to move now. Gradually, yes, gradually,’ Bahlil said after a breaking-of-fast gathering at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jakarta on Wednesday night, 4 March. He noted that oil imports cannot be conducted all at once because Indonesia has limited crude storage capacity. Therefore, in addition to shifting oil imports from the Middle East to the United States, Indonesia is also responding to the US-Israel war with Iran by speeding up storage construction. ‘I have reported this to the President (Prabowo Subianto), and the President has given instructions that it should be built immediately. So that what? We need survival,’ Bahlil said. Indonesia has secured investors for the storage project planned to be located in Sumatra. At present, the storage project is undergoing a feasibility study before entering the construction phase. Bahlil targets that the storage development will begin this year.