Oil and Gas Executives Convene to Discuss Major Exploration and Energy Security Initiatives | INSIDER

Executives from dozens oil and gas companies gather in the East Java capital of Surabaya today and tomorrow (October 14-15, 2024) for the Indonesia Exploration Forum (IEF), co-organized by the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKK Migas) and oil contractors (KKKS).

Indonesia Exploration Forum (IEF) is present as a response to the challenges of increasing oil consumption amidst stagnant production capacity faced by the upstream oil and gas industry. The two-day meeting is held to encourage large-scale exploration and accelerating the transition from discovery to production to support energy security to realize the Onward Indonesia 2045 Vision.

Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Dadan Kusdiana, said in his opening speech that Indonesia must be able to answer the challenge of strengthening its energy security through massive and collaborative exploration efforts.

“This exploration forum can be a means to collaborate and increase oil and gas discoveries. This forum should be held regularly, so that exploration developments and breakthroughs for sustainable discoveries can continuously be improved,” he suggested.

He added that the government is currently focusing on the eastern Indonesia region including Buton, Timor, Seram, Aru and Papua. Currently there are 34 joint exploration studies on oil and gas potential in Indonesia.

“We have witnessed two signings of contracts for phase 1 of 2024, while the the second phase of bidding will be carried out immediately. The government continues to prepare new oil and gas blocks. More than 60 oil and gas blocks are prepared for the next five years,” Dadan said.

Long-term strategy

Head of SKK Migas, Dwi Soetjipto, said the task force has formulated a key strategy in an effort to increase national oil and gas production, with a focus on exploration as a long-term strategy.

Dwi expressed his appreciation to SKK Migas and PSC Contractors for having done quite a lot of work, drilling 130 exploration wells and conducting 11 regional studies and more than 600 G&G studies in the last five years.

“SKK Migas and PSCs have conducted a 2D seismic survey of around 48,500 square km, a 3D survey of around 10,000 square km and four Full Tensor Gradiometry (FTG) activities of around 250,000 km2 in an attempt to find new reserves,” Dwi said.

With government support, especially the ESDM Ministry, investment climate in exploration could have been improved in the last five years. There were many oil and gas discoveries in the last five years, including the giant discovery of Geng North and Layaran-1.

Speaking about oil and gas discoveries that have not been fully utilized and produced, Dwi cited that SKK Migas is currently evaluating idle fields, stranded Plans of Development (PODs) and undeveloped discoveries.

In accordance with Ministerial Decree No. 110/2024 on Guidelines for the Return of Potential Work Areas that are not cultivated, Dwi said the government will take actions for fields undeveloped for more than three years, PODs stranded for more than two years, and discoveries undeveloped for more than 3 years.

“We emphasize that in January 2025 there will be four types of recommendation issued by SKK Migas, namely working independently, working in collaboration with business entities, appointing Cooperation Agreement (KSO) or returned to the State,” Dwi said.

Forum for collaboration

Deputy for Exploration, Development and Management of SKK Migas Working Areas Benny Lubiantara highlighted the importance of IEF as a forum for industry leaders to collaborate and innovate.

He emphasized this forum as a transformational event to shape the future of oil and gas energy in Indonesia.