House Calls on Indonesian Government to Increase Oil Lifting Target

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – House of Representatives Commission VII Deputy Chairman Eddy Soeparno on Wednesday called on the Upstream Oil and Gas Special Regulatory Task Force (SKK Migas) to increase Indonesia’s oil lifting for crude oil.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic, our oil lifting target in 2020 was 775,000 bpd and it was then revised to 705,000 bpd in the 2021 state budget,” Eddy said in a statement on Wednesday, December 23.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said recently that the realization of oil lifting in November alone reached 689,700 barrels per day (bpd) and 704,500 bpd from January to November this year.

Also read: Indonesia Aims to Reach Upstream Oil and Gas Sector Target Next Year

Eddy said this showed that the realization of the 2020 oil lifting did not achieve the revised target of 705,000 bpd.

The world’s crude oil prices, however, have begun to recover, he said.

Data from the Ministry of Finance showed that in November 2020, the price of oil stood at $40 per barrel on an end-of-period basis and $39.78 per barrel from the beginning of the year to November.

Also read: Indonesia’s Realization of Oil and Gas Production, Lifting in Q3 Decline Due to Coronavirus

“It did not benefit us when the crude oil price increased,” said the member of the National Mandate Party faction.

Eddy said that the government should immediately increase its oil and gas lifting with or without the increase in oil crude prices.

“Our oil and gas lifting has a large capacity but we are unable to increase it. Therefore, our imports have increased and affect our foreign exchange reserves,” he said.

(Writer: Rully R. Ramli | Editor: Erlangga Djumena)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2020/12/23/214000626/harga-minyak-mulai-membaik-dpr-dorong-pemerintah-tingkatkan-lifting-.