In a press release (21/7), the Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas) conveyed encouraging developments related to the trend of upstream oil and gas investment which has continued to increase in recent years.
Recorded per semester 1-2025, the realization of upstream oil and gas investment increased by 28.6% to US$ 7.19 billion or around Rp 118 trillion compared to the realization in the same period in 2024 of US$ 5.59 billion.
The outlook for investment realization until the end of 2025 is expected to reach around US$ 16.5 billion to US$ 16.9 billion. This figure will exceed the 2024 investment realization of US$ 14.4 billion, and will be the largest upstream oil and gas investment in Indonesia since the last 10 years.
Based on SKK Migas data in the last 9 years of the 2015-2024 period, the highest investment occurred in 2015 at US$ 15.3 billion. After that it experienced a downward trend.
One of the lowest periods was in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic with a realized investment of US$ 10.5 billion. Since 2021 the investment trend has continued to increase and in 2024 it has reached US$ 14.3 billion.
"Efforts to improve the upstream oil and gas investment climate made by the Government have given investors confidence in the increasingly attractive future of the upstream oil and gas industry. Moreover, the upstream oil and gas sector is one of the pillars of national energy security as stated in President Prabowo Subianto's ASTA CITA Program," said Head of SKK Migas Djoko Siswanto at a press conference on upstream oil and gas performance in the middle of 2025 at the SKK Migas office in Jakarta (21/7).
Improved Investor Attractiveness Rating
Djoko further added that the increasing competitiveness of upstream oil and gas investment in Indonesia has also improved the investor attractiveness rating published by S&P Global in 2025 which reached a score of 5.35 or consistently increased since the lowest score in 2021 which was below 4.75.
"The increase in investor attractiveness assessment is contributed by the discovery of major upstream oil and gas discoveries in 2023 and 2024 as well as improvements in the fiscal system by the Government. So now there is no longer the term uneconomical field, because the Government provides support so that how the field becomes economical, among others, with the provisions of the New Gross Split PSC, the elimination of LNG VAT, gas infrastructure and others," Djoko added.
The increase in upstream oil and gas investment is a driver of an increase in the main upstream oil and gas activities that have a direct impact on efforts to maintain and increase national oil and gas production.
Development well drilling activities until June 2025 have completed 409 wells, an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2024 of 358 wells. Likewise, workover activities have completed 517 wells or an increase of 6% and for well service activities reached 20,644 activities or an increase of 12%.
Related to efforts to increase oil and gas reserves, Djoko said that the trend of investment in the exploration sector also continues to increase. In 2020 the investment for exploration amounted to US$ 0.5 billion and in 2024 the exploration investment reached US$ 1.3 billion and for 2025 the prognosis for exploration investment amounted to US$ 1.5 billion and will be the largest exploration investment in the last 10 (ten) years.
Regarding efforts to increase oil and gas reserves, Djoko said that the trend of investment in the exploration sector also continues to increase.
To gain momentum for the return of big player hulumigas, throughout 2023 to 2025, SKK Migas continues to encourage investor engagement activities that have resulted in 40 (forty) joint sudy activities, some of which have been completed and some are in the process for 16 (sixteen) new blocks.
The majority of joint study activities are conducted in Eastern Indonesia involving international oil companies (IOCs) such as ENI, Petronas, Inpex, Sinopec, CNOOC, BP, Total Energies, PetroChina, Kufpec, Woodside Energy, and others.
Source: SKK Migas press release
