MPR Leadership Agrees to Boost Indonesia's National Oil and Gas Reserves

Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR RI), Eddy Soeparno, expressed agreement with President Prabowo Subianto’s instruction to raise the national oil and gas (migas) reserves to 90 days. He said the current position of national migas reserves stands at only 20 days, making the increase necessary to strengthen energy reserve resilience when world oil and gas supplies are disrupted by the war raging in the Middle East. ‘Because Indonesia is a net importer of migas, I agree with President Prabowo’s instruction that the national strategic migas reserves be increased to 90 days,’ he said. He noted that every country with a need for migas to power its economy requires available and reliable supplies so that sectors such as fertilisers, petrochemicals and transport can continue to operate in geopolitically tense conditions as currently experienced. He explained that this is not only about availability of supply, but more about reliability of supply. ‘It is unimaginable if the current migas reserves are exhausted and we have not yet secured additional supply. Public mobility and industrial activity would practically come to a halt,’ he said. ‘Cars and motorcycles would not be able to move, aircraft would be grounded at airports and ships would pile up at ports,’ he added. The same applies to industries that use oil and gas as feedstocks, such as fertiliser factories, plastic manufacturers and petrochemicals, which would halt production, he continued. ‘Therefore, we must strengthen national energy resilience by increasing the volume of strategic migas reserves in line with President Prabowo’s directives,’ Eddy said. The UI political science doctor noted that no one can predict when the Israel-U.S. and Iran war will end, so Indonesia needs to act quickly. ‘Possible steps include diversifying import supplies to ensure migas can be obtained from countries outside the Middle East region,’ he explained. Eddy also explained the urgency of building migas storage capacity that must be prioritised. The MPR, he said, is pushing for budget provisions to build additional storage capacity, as well as the purchase of migas commodities that will act as a domestic migas buffer in emergencies. ‘Therefore we support the establishment of a National Petroleum Fund that can be used, among other things, to strengthen domestic energy resilience,’ he asserted. He views that thickening the national migas reserves will remain beneficial even if geopolitical conditions return to normal. He stated that in non-critical or non-emergency periods this buffer could act as a hedging mechanism against commodity price volatility when migas prices rise sharply in the future. ‘The geopolitical crisis and the war in the Middle East today teach that energy resilience is vital for the continuity of Indonesia’s economy. Therefore energy resilience should be on par with national resilience,’ Eddy said.