Indonesia’s State Oil Firm Eyes Nigerian Blocks As NUPRC Pushes Output Drive

Indonesia’s national oil company, Pertamina, has signalled interest in Nigeria’s 2026 licensing round, adding a state-backed bidder to a contest the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is counting on to lift output.

The interest emerged at a meeting between the commission’s chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, and Pertamina’s vice president for upstream business development, Toriq Abdat, NUPRC’s head, Corporate Communications and Media, Eniola Akinkuotu, provided details of the meeting on Sunday.

Indonesia’s vice minister of Foreign Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, also attended.

Abdat said Pertamina is looking for producing assets or projects close to production, including those available before a final investment decision (FID).

He said the company would consider both competitive bids and bilateral arrangements.

“We would like to be in projects with governments,” he said. “Now we are looking at how we can help you reach the 3 million, and also help us provide more energy for our own consumption.”

Pertamina has not said it will bid, and no terms have been discussed publicly.

The company is looking abroad because output at home is short of target.

Indonesia produces about 600,000 barrels per day and wants to reach 2.3 million by 2030, which it says it cannot do from domestic fields alone. Abdat said Pertamina’s exploration towards deepwater at home had found more gas than oil.

“We have been given a mandate to expand our business internationally, and we are now in other countries outside Indonesia,” he said.

He named Malaysia, the Middle East, Iraq and Nigeria as targets.

Nigeria produces about 1.7 million barrels of oil per day and aims to reach 3 million by 2030. Eyesan said the licensing round is one of the tools for closing that gap.

“We have very aggressive targets, 3 million barrels per day by 2030, and today we are at 1.6, 1.7,” she said.

“We are committed to the objective, and the licensing round is one of the strategies we are utilising.”

She said licensing rounds are now a recurring exercise under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.

The last commercial bid round, held in July, 2026, offered 50 assets, and 37 were awarded.

Eyesan said Nigeria had reset its fiscal terms in response to competition for the same pool of global capital. She said entry barriers, including signature bonuses, had been reduced to attract investors.

She added that both countries share the same priorities: energy security, resource utilisation and attracting investment.

Beyond oil

The Indonesian side said it was also exploring opportunities outside crude oil and gas. Pertamina is building a fertiliser plant to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern supply, which has been disrupted by the current global conflict.

Nigeria is diversifying its phosphate sourcing, including a long-term transatlantic pipeline project with Morocco to serve West Africa, and has simplified fertiliser distribution rules that once ran to about 160 layers of regulation.

Both sides agreed to run the commercial and diplomatic tracks in parallel.