Harnessing the Potential of Natural Resources, Arcandra: Clarifying and Improving the Status of the Key Data

INDUSTRY.co.id - Pekanbaru - Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arcandra Tahar said the Government is continuing to exploit the potential of natural resources, especially renewable energy (EBT) to meet local energy needs.

Related to that, the important step that must be done is to clarify and improve the status of potential data that exist, to be a proven reserve that is ready to be utilized to support the energy availability of the region.

"Our natural resource reserves need to be scrutinized more deeply, if one declares our world's fifth largest resource, it is (still) unverified, still potential, not yet spare, the reserves are subdivided, some are called possible reserve, there are so-called probable reserves, some are called proven reserves," said Arcandra at the Deliberation V of the Unity Family of 2018 at Pekanbaru Riau, Saturday (7/4/2018).

Arcandra said talking about reserves, when called the potential we have to think further. "Where is the data? How about the calculation? One day we can data, the potential of sea water / the waves of hundreds of Giga Watt (GW) .I see, this is where the data, the way the calculation of a statement then multiplied the length of the beach. This," he said.

A very clear case example is petroleum. "Do we still believe our country is rich in oil? Proven reserve is only 3.3 billion barrels or about 0.2 percent of the world's oil reserves. Our production is 800,000 barrels per day (bph) .We may be thinking in a few years our reserves are depleted, if we do not find another reserve, the oil will not be exhausted, the existing human capability is currently only able to take up to 40-50% .There are still 60-50% more down there, which has not been taken," explains Arcandra.

With the condition of the amount of fossil reserves, Arcandra emphasized the importance of non-fossil energy use in order to meet national energy needs. "Are we going to harness energy beyond fossils? Yes! Non fossils are a necessity," he asserted.

"In the period 2014-2016, contract signing with PLN for Renewable Energy (EBT) is only about 14 or 15, by 2017 there are 70, a four-fold increase.In 2017 we encourage EBT. Breakthrough, which from is this data from? Renewable energy we are pushing, commitment 1.2 GW signed last year so please corrected if somebody says the Government did not make a breakthrough," he said.