Existing oil and gas law not conducive for investment

According to Kurtubi, Indonesia actually still had very sizable oil and gas reserves, namely about 86.9 billion barrels of oil and about 384 tcf of gas. The decline in investment in oil and discovery of new oil fields in Indonesia was in stark contrast with developments in the oil and gas industries of other contries, OPEC as well as non-OPEC oil producing countries, especially in western Africa and Central Asia, where the industry was flourishing.

He said because there was little investment in oil and gas exploration, hardly any new reserves had been found. The rate at which new reserves were found did not match the rate at which oil and gas reserves were being exploited. Production came from old fields and dropped from about 1.5 million barrels per day in 1999 to 0.91 million barrels per day in 2007.