By Romel S. Gurky
State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina unveiled a number of green initiative strategies in a bid to help realize the government’s net zero emission (NZE) goal by 2060 or sooner at the recent Hannover Messe event in Germany.
“Pertamina has been known as the largest energy company in Indonesia. We have a strategic role, which is to ensure national energy security. However, what is not widely known by the public is that Pertamina is very serious about realizing a sustainable business," said Fadli Rahman, Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development of Pertamina New & Renewable Energy, the renewables arm of Pertamina, at a press conference on the sidelines of the Hannover Messe event on Thursday as quoted in a statement.
He said that from 2010 to 2021, Pertamina has reduced emissions by 29.07% or 7.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This decrease was contributed by several activities, including reducing emissions from the combustion process, energy efficiency, and the use of low-carbon energy.
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To achieve the NZE 2060 goal, Pertamina is implementing two strategic initiatives, namely decarbonizing its current business and building a green business, he said.
There are six green business initiatives currently being developed by Pertamina, namely the production of biofuels, the development of renewable energy, carbon sinks, the development of clean hydrogen for the transportation and industrial sectors, the development of batteries and the EV ecosystem, and carbon trading. Emission reductions in “Scope 1 & 2” in 2060 from the six initiatives are estimated to reach 25-30 million tons of CO2 equivalent, or contribute around 2 percent to the national NZE aspirations, Fadli explained.
Biofuels production is carried out at Pertamina's refineries with a target capacity of 200 thousand barrels per day for hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) and hydro processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) in 2060.
Meanwhile, for the development of clean hydrogen, it is targeted to achieve a production capacity of 1.8 million tons per year by 2040. One of the sources of clean hydrogen development is geothermal. Pertamina NRE is collaborating with a number of strategic partners, such as Sembcorp, IGNIS, Keppel, Chevron, TEPCO, Krakatau Steel and Pondera in the clean hydrogen development initiatives, the statement said.
Another renewable energy source being developed by Pertamina is solar power plant (PLTS). PLTS has been built and utilized in a number of Pertamina's operating areas, including gas stations, which have now reached more than 300 points. Fadli said that efforts to utilize renewable energy are carried out by Pertamina as an effort to make its business processes greener.
Decarbonization is also carried out through the carbon sink initiative. To realize national energy security, Indonesia still needs fossil energy, which is currently Pertamina's main business. However, to reduce carbon emissions in the upstream oil and gas sector, the carbon sink initiative is carried out by Pertamina in two ways, namely carbon capture storage (CCS/CCUS) and nature based solutions (NBS) initiatives. For CCS/CCUS, Pertamina cooperates with strategic partners from Japan and the United States, while for NBS, collaboration is carried out with state-owned forestry firm Perhutani, the statement said.
“As the largest national energy company, Pertamina plays a strategic role in ensuring the fulfillment of the needs and supply of energy to public today. And at the same time Pertamina also ensures energy security for future generations, one of which is through the development of green energy," said Fadli closing his presentation.
Editing by Reiner SImanjuntak
