Jokowi gave the order on Wednesday, March 18, a week after several ministries announced their attitudes toward the low prices. He told Cabinet members to calculate the impact of the plunge on subsidized and unsubsidized fuel prices and how long it might last.

“We have to make use of this opportunity,” he said during a live-broadcast Cabinet meeting.

Global crude oil prices dropped early last week after Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, slashed its selling prices and set plans to increase production in punishing rival oil producer, Russia. The Middle Eastern country effectively triggered a price war between oil exporting countries. 

Read also: ‘We have many tanks to fill’: Indonesia to make the most out of globally low oil prices

As a result of the war, international oil price benchmark Brent reached US$26.17 per barrel as of 5:40 p.m. Thursday, the lowest since 2003, and close to a third of its peak price this year at $68 per barrel on Jan. 6.

In response to plunging prices, Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry announced plans to increase oil imports while the country’s Finance Ministry announced it would monitor the potential impact of the plunge on the state budget.

Lower crude prices and reduced oil and gas industry activity is a risk to the state budget as the industry is expected to contribute 35.4 percent – equal to Rp 127.3 trillion ($8.85 billion) – to Indonesia's non-tax state revenue this year.

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