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RI loses welders, engineers to foreign oil and gas projects
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The Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) oil and gas rig is pictured in the waters off Indramayu, West Java, on April 2, 2023. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
T
he Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) has complained that vacancies in oil and gas projects run by Indonesian companies remain unfilled because qualified professionals are hired by foreign companies for projects abroad.
Consequently, the projects failed to reach their maximum potential for oil and gas production, SKK Migas deputy for business support Rudi Satwiko said.
“The problem is that it’s a bit difficult [to find] welders, so some of our jobs are delayed, including big projects like Forel and others. It turns out that our welders are being hijacked,” he said during a Supply Chain and National Capacity Building event hosted by SKK Migas in Jakarta on Wednesday, as reported by Bisnis.
He went on to say that several Indonesian oil and gas engineers were also hired by foreign oil and gas companies, and “not only engineers; our skilled workers [in the oil and gas industry] are also [poached].”
Read also: Rig dearth aggravates RI’s declining oil, gas production
Oil consumption in Southeast Asia’s largest economy is forecast to more than double to 3.97 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) by 2050, according to SKK Migas data, while natural gas consumption is expected to more than quadruple to 26,000 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).
The government aims to boost its oil and gas production to 1 million bopd and 12 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd) of gas in 2030 to reduce its reliance on costly oil and gas imports and to meet the country’s increasing energy demand, making the capacity building of trained personnel crucial to future investments in the field.
