President Joko Widodo delivers his remarks at the Commemoration of the 79th Anniversary of Mining and Energy at the Kempinski Hotel, Central Jakarta, Thursday (10/10). (Photo by: BPMI)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo Thursday (10/10) ordered Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to increase oil production by optimizing the management of oil wells.
“Please make our existing oil wells productive,” President Jokowi said in his remarks at the Commemoration of 79th Anniversary of Mining and Energy at the Kempinski Hotel, Central Jakarta.
According to the President, if oil and gas production declines, the Government must spend a huge sum of money to import oil and gas.
“I just met Minister of Finance, and she stated that our oil lifting should not be allowed to decline. If we look at it briefly, it only drops a little, maybe 100 or 50 [barrels per day]. However, if we convert it to currency it means we have to spend hundreds of trillions to import oil and gas,” he added.
To that end, the Head of State ordered the Ministry to optimize oil and gas production through various means, such as collaborating with state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, SOEs, private sectors, or foreign companies.
“We must try all methods. We must not let our oil lifting drop even by one liter. It must increase every year,” the President said.
President Jokowi also ordered Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to simplify regulations in order to accelerate the country’s investment and increase global competitiveness so that Indonesia can compete with other countries.
“All time-consuming processes that go round in circles, from one desk to another, must be simplified so that investment comes to our country. Therefore, more job opportunities are created so we can carry out more oil explorations that lead to an increase in our oil and gas lifting,” the President said. (TGH/DNS) (GWH/RAS/MMB)
