Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia says it is ironic for Indonesia to continuously import 54 percent of its fuel oil from Singapore while considering that the neighboring country is not an oil producer.
“It’s an embarrassing irony, our beloved nation consumes 54 percent of its fuel oil from import. Where do we the import the fuel oil from? From Singapore,” Bahlil said while addressing at an event at The Westin Hotel Jakarta, on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
According to Bahlil, this condition is even more paradoxical considering that Singapore itself does not have oil fields. However, Indonesia still buys fuel oil from that country at the same price as oil imported from the Middle East.
Currently, Indonesia’s fuel oil imports have reached 1 million barrels per day, in contrast to the 1996-1997 period when Indonesia was still able to export 1 million barrels of oil per day. At that time, oil and gas lifting reached 1.6 million barrels per day with domestic consumption of only 600,000 barrels per day. However, in 2024, Indonesia’s oil and gas lifting dropped drastically to only 600,000 barrels per day.
“So now we import 1 million barrels per day. A reverse from a period between 1996-1997 and 2024. That’s why we start to think, does our nation really not have oil?” he said.
To overcome this problem, Bahlil emphasized the need to improve oil and gas governance through three key measures. First, optimizing idle oil wells so that they can produce again.
Second, utilizing Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology to increase oil production from existing wells. Third, immediately completing the construction of 300 wells that have been explored but have not entered the Plan of Development (PoD) stage.
“These three measures must be completed immediately so that we do not continue to depend on fuel imports,” he concluded
