Government to open data of 70 oil basins
Monday, February 13 2017 - 02:34 AM WIB
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources plans to open up data related to 70 oil and gas basins or subsurface layers containing hydrocarbons to allow experts from around the world to analyze them in the hope it could lead to the finding of new oil and gas reserves in the country.
This was said by Director General of Oil and Gas at the ministry IGN Wiratmaja Puja on Sunday. He said that there are 100 oil and gas basins in the country of which only 30 have been explored.
Wiratmaja said that similar policy of opening the oil basin data to experts implemented in Australia and Norway has been successful in leading to the finding of new reserves.
Benny Lubiantara, Head of the Experts Council of the Indonesian Oil Engineers Association (IATMI), was quoted by Koran Tempo as saying Monday that that the government must provide incentives to investors to help in the efforts to find new oil and gas reserves. ?The geology prospects are still good, but incentives are expected to lead to discovery.
He said that the 70 basins contained oil and gas reserves estimated at 3.7 billion barrels, of which 60 percent are located in the deep sea, thus requires huge investment cost to be developed.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak