Antara News·Indonesia·Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 05:07 AM UTC

Indonesia drafts rules to accelerate 67 frontier basin exploration

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Putu Indah Savitri, Yashinta Difa

Sanur, Bali (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is drafting new regulations to accelerate oil and gas exploration across 67 untapped frontier basins nationwide with more favorable investment terms.

Coordinator for the Development of Conventional Oil and Gas Working Areas at the Ministry’s Directorate General of Oil and Gas, Ivan, announced that the upcoming rules will offer significantly more attractive terms for investors.

"To accelerate exploration across these 67 frontier basins, the government is drafting new regulations," Ivan said during the 51st ASEAN Council on Petroleum and Energy (ASCOPE) meeting in Bali, on Monday (October 26).

Under the proposed framework, the government plans to flexibly adjust core investment parameters—including production-sharing schemes, signature bonuses, and mandatory firm commitments—to match the unique geological conditions and high-risk profiles of each individual working area.

"Production-sharing schemes, bonuses, and firm commitments can be tailored to the conditions of each specific area. However, the regulations are still a work in progress," Ivan said.

According to data from the Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas), Indonesia hosts a total of 128 sedimentary basins.

Of that inventory, 20 are actively producing, 41 hold confirmed oil and gas discoveries but remain in exploration phases, and 67 remain entirely unexplored.

To bolster the nation's energy reserves and stimulate new finds, Jakarta is aggressively pushing upstream activities through enhanced geological studies, seismic data acquisition, and exploratory drilling.

The ESDM Ministry data indicates that Indonesia’s current exploration-to-production success rate stands at approximately 14.5 percent—meaning roughly one out of every seven exploration initiatives successfully reaches the commercial production stage.

To improve this ratio, the ministry emphasized that expanding exploration efforts and upgrading the quality of subsurface data remain critical to helping investors accurately identify and de-risk high-potential oil and gas resources.

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