Upstream Oil and Gas Industry Efforts to Reach 1 Million BOPD & 12 BSCFD: New Vision of Governing the Ungovernable

Indonesia is a country with a population equivalent to 3.51% of the total world population. A large population makes Indonesia the fourth most populous country in the world. 

According to this, it is very important to continue improving economic development in order to maintain sustainable economic growth and to fulfill domestic needs. 

Prior to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia had made huge gains in poverty alleviation by successfully cutting the poverty rate by more than half since 1999, to 9.78% in 2020. 

In addition, Indonesia was able to maintain consistent economic growth, thus ultimately qualify Indonesia to be a country with upper-middle income status. 

In order to support Indonesia's economic growth, ensuring the running of operations in various industrial sectors is important to support the running of the existing economy activity.

"Indonesia's proven oil reserves could run out in nine-and-a-half years if no new oil can be found" - Arifin Tasrif, The Energy and Mineral Resources Minister (ESDM)

The level of energy availability is one of the important factors that greatly influences the fulfillment of domestic needs and supports economic development carried out by various industrial sectors. 

The polemic about when fossil energy, especially oil, will run out has become a widely heard warning, especially in Indonesia. 

Fossil energy, in the form of oil and natural gas, still be the main resource to be used in various industries. But in fact, until now Indonesia still imports oil and gas to meet domestic needs. 

Based on data from the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia, the oil and gas trade balance in May 2021 was a deficit of USD 1.13 billion(*) while the oil and gas import figure stood at USD 2.06 billion(*), an increase compared to the oil and gas import figure in May 2020, which was USD 0.66 billion. 

Meanwhile, if viewed from the production side, historically hydrocarbon production in Indonesia is now dominated by gas production while oil production has continued to decline since reaching its peak in 1998. 

In the period 2012-2019, oil production in Indonesia declined by 0-3%, when in 2019 the achievement of national oil and condensate production reached 745.1 thousand BOPD or decreased by 29.96 thousand BOPD compared to the production achievement in 2018, which was 772.1 thousand BOPD.