Oil and Gas Sector of Indonesia (Part 1.)

Abstract

The article analyses the current situation in the oil and gas sector of Indonesia that used to be a big oil exporting country and a member of OPEC but some years ago became a net-importer of oil. The demand of the growing Indonesian economy for oil much exceeds the capacities of its oil industry and each year Indonesia has to spend great amounts of money for importing oil and oil products. The government is trying to take all possible measures to attract new investments in this field but the lifting of oil continues to drop first of all due to the absence of proper investments into the exploration for oil and gas. The situation with the gas lifting is much better but a large part of its reserves first of all situated in the South China Sea can not used properly due to a high content of carbon dioxide in it. Besides, in this area Indonesian companies carrying out the exploration for oil and gas faces a military presence of China that regards it as its own territory.