Director General (Dirjen) of Oil and Natural Gas (Migas) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Tutuka Ariadji revealed that the government is anticipating the worst possibility of an escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict by looking for crude oil import reserves. The reason is, if the Strait of Hormuz which separates Iran and the United Arab Emirates is closed, it will have an impact on world oil trade routes, because more than 20 thousand vessels (ships) carrying tens of millions of barrels of oil pass through the strait.
“We are opening up the possibility (of importing crude oil) in many places and there are many alternatives. We will identify which one is most suitable. Sometimes there are already oil reserves but the type of fluid or oil is not necessarily suitable for our refinery,” he explained.
Currently, Indonesia’s main sources of crude oil imports are Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Angola and Gabon. Tutuka said that his party was currently reviewing sources of crude oil imports from other countries. This is to secure domestic oil stocks.
“Now there are many points. Now we are still identifying them,” he said.
Tutuka emphasized that the government is careful in responding to geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East. If Iran and Israel’s war escalates and disrupts trade routes in the Strait of Hormuz, it will have a significant impact on world crude oil supplies.
“In essence, the role of the Strait of Hormuz is very important. The Strait can be held by Iran and it really determines how Pertamina responds to this,” he concluded.
Tutuka said that following Iran’s attack on Israel there had been no direct impact on tankers transporting crude oil to Indonesia.
“There haven’t been any problems yet. But if a problem occurs, such as an increase in conflict escalation, it will become vulnerable,” he concluded. (Z-10)
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