Indonesian Committee sees geothermal as one key priority in reform of oil & gas market
Jakarta, Indonesia (source: flckr/ fidzonflickr, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
19 May 2015
An Indonesian energy market reform committee has produced 12 points addressing widely discussed issues and highlights the role of renewables and geothermal as part of the reform.
Indonesia is in dire need to increase power generation in the country and in the last few years, it has promised to end subsidies to oil and gas and focus on tapping and accelerating renewable power development. This is a great idea in principle, but the oil and gas industry, or at least some parts of it, have a lot of power in the country, or as the Jakarta Post call them: the “mafia”.
According to this same source, the government created a diverse reform team for oil and gas governance and said team has recently “ended its six-month assessment of the complex issues that handicap the sector”. “The team — formed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister last November amid increasing worries about the ways in which the mafia was taking advantage of the sector’s poor management and supervision — handed in the 72-page-report to the minister last week”, according to the Jakarta Post
The results do not pinpoint the exact members of the “mafia” it has produced “12 points addressing widely discussed issues, such as the necessity of transparency, progress toward energy independence, infrastructure projects and improvements to upstream oil and gas management”
One of these points makes reference to our industry in particular to encourage energy independence by a. Developing new and renewable energy and b. Prioritizing development of hydroelectric and geothermal power plants
Let us hope that the Indonesian government follow said points and provides more assistance for the development of the geothermal industry in the country with the largest untapped potential worldwide.
Source: Jakarta Post
