Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The National Energy Council (DEN) assesses that widespread use of natural gas could be the key for Indonesia to make an energy transition to New Renewable Energy (EBT).

This is because the emissions from burning natural gas are lower when compared to other fossil energy, both oil and coal.

Secretary General of the National Energy Council (DEN) Djoko Siswanto said, in this energy transition period, gas is one of the best energy sources. He reasoned that the emissions released from the gas burning process are 50% lower than those from coal.

“Gas has 50% lower emissions than coal. Thank God, we still export gas, which means there is still a lot of gas in the form of LNG from Tangguh (LNG plant), from Donggi Senoro, and from Bontang, yes, or we export via piped gas from Sumatra to Singapore and also Natuna to Singapore,” he said at the 2023 Road to CNBC Indonesia Awards, Tuesday (31/10/2023).

However, Djoko realizes that domestic gas infrastructure has not been massively developed. In fact, the key to optimizing domestic natural gas can be achieved through the even availability of infrastructure.

Therefore, according to him, currently the government is aggressively building gas infrastructure in several areas.

“Previously it was not financed by the APBN, now the transmission pipe from Cirebon-Semarang has been financed by the APBN, the budget is IDR 3 trillion for 3 years. Then also the pipe from Sei Mangkei to Dumai, later when it connects from Sumatra to Natuna, Natuna only has 6 kilos left from Pemping Island to WTS to Singapore, if everything is connected, then we can use the gas as a whole,” he explained.

Previously, SKK Migas Secretary Shinta Damayanti explained that in the energy transition, natural gas was seen as a strategic commodity that could be developed further. Bearing in mind, RI holds a wealth of natural gas which is quite abundant.

Some of them are in the Tangguh Train III project, the Masela Block, the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) project, and most recently in the Andaman II Block.

“Of course it can be monetized immediately but we must not forget that when talking about gas we have to talk about the infrastructure for its use in the industry because we have to determine who will use the gas,” said Shinta at the CNBC Indonesia Energy Transition Forum, Thursday (22/12/ 2022).

Therefore, he hopes that the construction of the Cirebon-Semarang or Cisem section project and the Dumai-Sei Mangkei section can be finalized soon. So that the excess gas supply in East Java can meet the shortage of gas supply in West Java to Sumatra.

“Currently Cisem provides a solution for Java and Sumatra, while we still have 68 basins that have not yet been explored and most of them are in the east and gas, now the homework is to explore later and find out who will use it and that connection is very important homework,” he said.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(wia)