Since the mid 1990s, one dynamic of the national energy sector, specically from the perspective of the petroleum industry, was the achievement of peak production. Since then production levels have begun a steady but sure decline. At the same time, levels of domestic consumption have continued to rise. These two trend lines, namely declining production and increasing consumption have nally been passed. Since the middle of the last decade, Indonesia switched from being a petroleum exporting nation to becoming a petroleum importing nation.
Graph 1 demonstrates the shift in Indonesia over the past 30 years as oil moved from being a foreign reserve bonanza to being a major drain on the balance of payments. As an oil importer Indonesia now facesthe assorted threats to its current account balance and its balance of payments as well as domestic ination that arises due to the frequent price and availability shocks that aect the global oil industry.