Indonesia’s Pertamina Eyes Nigeria’s 2026 Oil Licensing Round

Indonesia’s state-owned oil company, Pertamina, is weighing participation in Nigeria’s 2026 oil licensing round, a fresh signal of foreign interest in the country’s upstream sector as the regulator pushes to lift production to three million barrels per day by 2030.

The interest emerged from talks between the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Indonesian officials, during which Toriq Abdat, Pertamina’s vice-president for upstream business development, met the commission’s Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, and Indonesia’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, according to a statement by the NUPRC Head of Corporate Communications and Media, Eniola Akinkuotu, on Sunday.

Abdat said the company had been mandated to expand internationally after deepwater exploration at home yielded more gas than oil. “We have been given a mandate to expand our business internationally; we are now in other countries outside Indonesia. In Indonesia, we are producing only around 600,000 barrels. We are working on exploration towards deepwater, but we found more gas than oil. That is why we go outside Indonesia, Malaysia, then the Middle East, Iraq and Nigeria,” he said.

He said Pertamina was interested in assets that were already producing, close to production or at the stage before final investment decision, and would consider both competitive bids and bilateral arrangements. “We would like to be in projects with governments. Producing assets, or near production, or before FID. Now we are looking at how we can help you reach the 3 million barrels per day, and also help us provide more energy for our own consumption,” he added.

Eyesan said Nigeria and Indonesia shared priorities around energy security, resource utilisation and attracting investment, and described Nigeria’s production target as demanding. “We have very aggressive targets: 3 million barrels per day by 2030, and today we are at 1.6–1.7 million barrels per day. We are committed to the objective and the licensing round is one of the strategies we are utilising,” she said.

She said licensing rounds had become a recurring exercise rather than an occasional one since they were institutionalised under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, and that Nigeria had reviewed its fiscal terms, including lower entry barriers such as signature bonuses, to compete for international capital. The commission’s most recent commercial bid round, held in July, placed 50 assets on offer and ended with 37 blocks awarded to 31 companies here.

Indonesia produces about 600,000 barrels of oil per day and is targeting 2.3 million barrels per day by 2030, a goal its authorities have said cannot be met from domestic fields alone, part of the reason Pertamina is looking at opportunities abroad.

The talks amount to expressed interest rather than a completed deal: no block has been awarded to Pertamina and no investment agreement has been signed. The 2026 licensing round is expected to open another avenue for upstream capital as Nigeria works towards its 2030 production target.

Sources: Punch, LEADERSHIP, New Telegraph