Upstream Sector Oil and Gas and Petrochemical Industry Should Be Noticed

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta- The national need for petrochemical industry raw materials continues to increase. Imports of raw materials, textiles, plastics and chemical preparations also provide a very large number. This condition illustrates how strategic the position of upstream oil and gas and petrochemical sector in national industrial development.

In the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) event held at Menara Kadin on Thursday (25/1/2018), Kadin Indonesia considered that the oil and gas industry and petrochemical sectors should receive serious attention in the structuring of national industrial structure.

"The petrochemical industry can actually contribute substantially to the state, such as reducing the dependence of raw material imports, increasing foreign exchange from exportable products, and opening up extensive employment," said Chairman of the Standing Committee on Chemical and Petrochemical Industry of Kadin Indonesia, Rauf Purnama.

Rauf also stated that the petrochemical industry also has a strategic position in the development of the industry as a whole in the cross-industry production chain.

Therefore, sustainable industrial development efforts are difficult to achieve if the petrochemical sector and other upstream oil and gas industries are not getting serious attention.

In Kadin's view, there are a number of obstacles that need to be addressed to achieve these objectives. The large demand for petrochemical products from the derived industrial sector on the one hand has not been fully met.

Not only for the derivative industry, had petrochemical industry also experienced obstacles related to the supply of cheap raw materials to energy supply. This impact on the selling price of the resulting product  is also difficult to compete with the price of imported raw materials.