Indonesia in efforts to shift fuel reliance

The Indonesian government has accelerated its efforts to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, whose output is dwindling, and to replace it with abundant gas.

The move aimed at reducing air pollution.

Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina expects to operate 44 gas refilling stations on main Java Island and Bali Island this year, rising from 18 at present, said Basuki Trikora, vice president of directorate for marketing of domestic gas of the firm said here on Friday.

It was expected that all gas refueling stations "which are in the process of revitalization can be operated all at this year end, " he said at the PT Pertamina headquarters.

Former Indonesian energy and mines minister Jero Wacik has said the government has decided to bolster the move by putting priority in allocating rising domestic gas outputs to comply with rising demand of energy in the domestic market.

Wacik said the government aspire to gradually add the number of the gas refueling stations by up to 100 units in years to come and 1,000 units in the longer term.

As the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has scrambled to cope with dwindling oil outputs for aging wells and bearish of fresh investment. Hence, the country exited from OPEC membership in 2008.

Rising energy demand has increased the consumption of subsidized-fuel in the country, forcing Indonesia to bear the brunt of soared importation of the commodity and badly risk on current account deficit.

Indonesia has a huge array of 104 trillion cubic natural gas reserve and only 3.7 billion barrel for oil, according to data from the country's upstream regulator, SKK Migas. Endi