Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Director of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), Enny Sri Hartati, highlighted the government’s policy not to increase fuel oil (BBM).

She asked the government not to burden energy state-owned enterprises, such as PT Pertamina, by requesting fuel prices not to increase amidst rising world oil prices.

“Today’s treatment of energy SOEs. How is it possible for Pertamina to get a one-price fuel assignment for all costs to bear Pertamina. Today, the price of crude oil has increased by more than USD 80 per barrel. Pertamina is still not allowed to increase the price of fuel,” she said in a discussion at Bakoel Koffie, Jakarta, as quoted on Saturday (26/5/2018).

She said, if the burden due to government programs is placed too much on BUMN in the energy sector, it will impact the company’s financial capacity.

“The treatment of our oil and gas BUMNs is like that. Then how does the need for BBM still depend on fossil energy? It has doubled while Pertamina’s investment capacity cannot, “he said.

“It is useless for the Mahakam Block to have Pertamina if Pertamina cannot invest in managing it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the National Coordinator for Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, Maryati Abdullah, shared several facts regarding Indonesia’s energy sector after the 1998 reform.

She noted that Indonesia’s energy consumption has doubled since 1998. Since 1998, Indonesia’s total energy consumption in 2016 has more than doubled, from 84.66 MTOE to 175.04 MTOE.

“The growth of energy consumption in Indonesia reaches an average of 4 percent per year. This increase is inseparable from Indonesia’s economic growth, also driven by population growth in Indonesia,“ she said.

Fossil fuels still dominate Indonesia’s energy mix. Ninety-six percent of Indonesia’s energy mix is ​​still contributed by oil, natural gas, and coal.

There has been a decrease in the contribution of oil in the energy mix since 2000. The role of oil has been replaced by coal.

“The contribution of coal in the primary energy mix increases by an average of 1.24 percent per year. Immense growth was found in 2015, namely up to 5.9 percent, “ she said.

Another note that the government must pay attention to is that the national oil consumption has increased significantly from year to year. On the other hand, the trend of discovering reserves and production is decreasing.

“In the period 2005 to 2015, an average growth rate of national oil consumption was recorded at 2 percent per year; unfortunately, the discovery of reserves and production activities were in a negative growth position, namely (-1.5 percent) and (-2‚6 percent) respectively. “He said.

With the assumption that there are no discoveries of petroleum reserves, and the production rate is the same as production in 2016, which is 881 thousand barrels per day.

So, Indonesia’s oil reserves are estimated to be exhausted in 2026.

This, he said, is an early warning for the national oil and gas and energy industry to start thinking about and transitioning to other energy sources, which can replace petroleum commodities as a national energy contributor.

One of the natural resources that can be boosted by optimization is natural gas, which is not used too much.

“Indonesia’s natural gas reserves and production have fluctuated in the last 26 years. However, the national natural gas consumption level is still below the national rate of natural gas production,” she said.

“This indicates that natural gas is one of the commodities that can be used more optimally as a source of meeting national energy needs in the future,” she added.