Yogyakarta – Pertamina needs an investment of USD 90 billion or equivalent to IDR 1,260 trillion to accelerate the energy transition from fossil energy to new and renewable energy (EBT) in the next five years, officials said Friday (25/3). President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Nicke Widyawati said that collaboration is very important in efforts to accelerate the energy transition.
“No one in any country is working on (the energy transition) on their own. So the key is collaboration in terms of technology and funding,” she said after the Task Force Energy, Sustainability, and Climate B20 event in Yogyakarta. The Business 20 or B20 is the international business community of G20 member countries. This sector is required to support the fulfillment of each country to achieve the net zero emission commitments that have been set.
So far, Pertamina has established cooperation to reduce carbon emissions with the Japan Group (Janus, JGC Corporation, J-Power) through a joint study agreement (JSA). The agreement is to review the implementation of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage and Enhanced Gas Recovery (CCUS/EGR) in the Gundih field project in Cepu, Central Java.
Pertamina targets a potential CO2 reduction of 300,000 tons per year from a total of 3 million tons of CO2 for 10 years. The reduction also has the potential to contribute to an increase in gas production. This is because the CO2 will be stored in subsurface formations and will provide the benefit of increasing gas recovery. Furthermore, the stored CO2 will be declared as a carbon credit and then divided between the Governments of Indonesia and Japan.
Pertamina is exploring cooperation with ExxonMobil regarding carbon capture utilization & storage (CCUS) technology to reduce carbon emissions in coal gasification projects and increase upstream oil and gas production through CO2 enhanced oil and gas recovery.
“Carbon capture not all countries in Asia have reservoirs. We have old wells that have been dredged, so that the empty reservoir can later become storage for carbon,” said Widyawati, adding that carbon capture can certainly be a global change related to carbon trading.
Parallel Agenda
Pertamina already has three parallel agendas in accelerating the energy transition. First, in terms of the Grand National Energy Strategy, where fossil energy is still maintained until 2050, although the portion is smaller. “So it doesn’t mean that when the energy transition is over, oil is finished. So what we have to do is we do downstream development. This requires technology and funding,” she said.
Pertamina will continue to develop fossil energy according to the National Energy Grand target, but in a greener way, such as green operations.
“We are doing Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage or CCUS, where the exhaust gas energy that has been thrown away so far is processed again into energy,” said Widyawati.
In the last two years, Pertamina has processed exhaust gas energy into electricity, so that it is able to reduce 27 percent of carbon emissions from the national target of 25 percent. Furthermore, the mandatory program for the use of biodiesel is an effort to reduce carbon emissions. Even the mandatory B30 program or mixing 30% biodiesel with 70% diesel oil is estimated to reduce emissions by up to 21 million tons of CO2
Both fuels will transition to green energy. Pertamina will develop gas infrastructure, because the key to gas development is infrastructure. “Gas is not easy to transport. For central and eastern Indonesia, which has many islands, we must build a virtual pipeline where gas is converted into LNG. So we build upstream and downstream gas infrastructure, so that this gas can then be accessed by the entire community,” she explained.
The third agenda is to develop palm-based bioenergy (B30, or 30 percent bio content) as a new energy. Pertamina has tested the use of biodiesel in motorized vehicles from B30 to B40. B30 is biodiesel in which a mixture of 30 percent fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and 70 percent of the mixture is diesel. While B40 is a biodiesel blend of 40% palm oil.
“Technically, our refinery is capable of producing fuel with a blend of 100% palm oil (B100). But the price of palm oil is still expensive, if we sell B100 no one will buy it,” said Widyawati. (Hartatik)
