INDONESIA'S EMERGING GAS POTENTIAL – MOVING ON AND STEP ON THE GAS

摘要

Indonesia has shifted from oil exporter to oilrnimporter since the mid 2000’s. In order to meet therngrowing domestic energy demand, and to lessen therndependence on imported oil, a key focus for therncountry will be tapping its significant undevelopedrngas resources. Indonesia’s remaining gas resourcesrnare still the highest in South East Asia, farrnexceeding Malaysia and Vietnam.rnA number of new gas developments are planned inrnIndonesia, but various issues have slowed downrnsome of these projects. This paper reviews thernemerging gas resources of Indonesia, discusses therncurrent challenges and looks at success stories thatrncould be replicated in the future. Indonesia has arngood track record of expediting gas developments,rnincluding the giant Arun and Badak fields.rnLikewise, there are useful lessons in optimizing gasrnusage that can be learned from neighbouringrncountries.rnA key to improving the development and utilizationrnof emerging gas resources in Indonesia is therndomestic demand. The domestic market for naturalrngas picked up since the early 2000’s and therndemand is expected to continue growing in the nextrndecade. The government has taken steps to increaserndomestic allocation from future gas projects, whichrncould prove beneficial particularly for therndevelopment of smaller fields in high demand areas.rnThe lack of a centralized gas grid master plan,rnleading to scattered infrastructure, is one of thernmain challenges preventing the full utilization ofrngas domestically. However, the government’srnpolicies on domestic allocation are expected torndrive initiatives to expand the existing distributionrnand transmission network.