New minister unveils short-term priority programs
Thursday, October 27 2016 - 01:15 AM WIB
Recently-appointed Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan unveiled on Wednesday his short-term priority programs.
They include the issues of mineral export ban, revision of Government Regulation No 79/2010 (GR 79) on oil and gas cost recovery, Masela, Mahakam, and East Natuna block, single fuel price policy, development of oil refineries, 35,000 power plant development, reduction in gas price for industries, and regional government participating interest in oil and gas assets.
?These are the priorities in line with the direction of the President. These must be completed,? he told the media.
He said that regarding gas price for industry, the government is determined to lower the price to levels that are more competitive than gas price in other Southeast Asian nations to help improve competitiveness of the country?s industries. ?How come that countries which don?t produce gas can sell gas (to their industries) at cheaper price?? he said.
Jonan said that regarding the oil refinery development program, Indonesia needs to increase the capacity as domestic fuel demand is estimated at 1.6 million bpd, while capacity of existing refineries is 1.1 million bpd, with effective capacity of around 800,000 bpd.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak