Indonesia May Return to Net Oil Exporter by 2020, Wirjawan Says

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-07/indonesia-may-return-to-net-oil-exporter-by-2020-wirjawan-says.html

By Jason Folkmanis

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest crude oil producer, may return to net exporter status by 2020 by increasing exploration and investment in the industry, a government official said.

Indonesia pulled out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2008 as aging fields and declining output turned the nation into a net oil importer. Oil production averaged about 1 million barrels a day that year while daily consumption averaged about 1.22 million barrels, according to BP Plc.

“In the next five to 10 years, we’ve got a chance,” Gita Wirjawan, chairman of Indonesia’s investment coordinating board, said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Ho Chi Minh City today. The nation is focusing on “seeing heightened exploration activities in the near future,” Wirjawan said.

Indonesia’s proven oil reserves declined to 3.7 billion barrels in 2008 from 9 billion barrels in 1988, according to BP.

“We have re-crafted the business plan for Pertamina to set higher ambitions, from an upstream standpoint and also from a downstream standpoint,” Wirjawan said, referring to the state oil and gas company.

--Editors: Ryan Woo.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Folkmanis in Ho Chi Minh City at folkmanis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Klemming at lklemming@bloomberg.net.