Arifin Tasrif
KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 13): Indonesia is currently enticing potential investors to tap into the country’s unexplored basins in its race to produce one million barrels of oil per day and 12 billion standard cubic feet per day of gas by 2030.
Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif said while the nation strongly believes that renewable energy will play a significant role in the future, Indonesia will continue to maximise its oil and gas (O&G) resources to ensure energy security and affordability, while pursuing net-zero emission goals.
“We also believe that the archipelago still offers attractive resources, as currently, O&G production comes from only 20 out of 128 basins, and 68 basins have not been explored.
“Recent exploration drilling at Timpan-1 well in the Andaman Sea showed positive results with gas reserves potential, which is a play opener and will invite more exploration activities in the area.
“We look forward to drilling in seven other structures with the hope of a giant discovery,” he said.
His speech was read by Indonesia’s special task force for upstream oil and gas business chairman Dwi Soetjipto yesterday during the launch of the Oil and Gas Asia (OGA) 2022, Malaysia’s Oil and Gas Services Exhibition and Conference (MOGSEC) and Petrochemicals Sustainability Conference (PSC).
He said that the O&G sector will remain relevant, especially for gas as it plays a more strategic role in energy transition, however, the challenge lies in figuring out how to increase production and reduce emissions at the same time.
“We’ve also launched our exploration activities to tap our non-conventional O&G reserves. We are aware that developing non-conventional resources is challenging and therefore, we are conducting a study to formulate attractive fiscal terms for these projects,” Arifin said.
He emphasised that intense collaboration is needed from all stakeholders to be able to achieve this target through potential cooperation in terms of funding, research, technology as well as human resource development.
“From our side, we are continuously working to improve our investment climate and we are aware that the upstream O&G industry – particularly the exploratory phase – presents considerable investment risks.
“In 2019 and 2020, we conducted the largest 2D seismic survey to date, spanning 32,200 kilometres and covering 35 basins. These data are now available to those interested,” he added.
Arifin added that Indonesia has ten open investment areas with various portfolios in terms of returns, risks, and on-stream time, ranging from known reserves with immediate monetisation opportunities to newly discovered resources and high-risk, high-reward exploration opportunities.
“At the moment, we are developing a Virtual Data Room as an online showroom and technical evaluation platform which hopefully will be launched at the 3rd International Convention on Indonesia Upstream Oil and Gas next November in Bali,” he said.
He highlighted that the Indonesian government has shown its commitment to working with contractors so that a field can be developed economically, adding that the government has provided incentives for the development in Exxonmobil Cepu, Pertamina Hulu Mahakam, Pertamina Hulu Energy Sanga-Sanga, Pertamina Hulu Kalimantan Timur, and some other working area. — Bernama