Indonesia’s Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas) has revealed that a company from the United States (US) is showing interest in investing in the country’s oil sector.

The American investor is reportedly preparing to invest US$1.7 billion, or approximately Rp27.72 trillion, into Indonesian oil fields.

This was conveyed by the Head of SKK Migas, Djoko Siswanto, who said he had just held a meeting with the US investor on Monday (July 22, 2025).

Djoko elaborated that the investor is still in the process of identifying oil fields in Indonesia with strong potential. As a result, SKK Migas is not yet able to confirm the details of the investment or disclose the identity of the prospective investor.

“The investor from the US is planning to invest US$1.7 billion, but they are still assessing the potential oil fields in Indonesia,” said Djoksis, his familiar nickname, at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources on Tuesday (July 22, 2025).

He added that the investor’s interest emerged after learning that Indonesia has a significant number of idle oil wells.

“They came here because they are interested in discovered reserves. They received reports about thousands of idle wells and now want to take a closer look,” he said.

Previously, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) had reported a total of 504 idle oil wells that are expected to be auctioned off either this year or next year by state-owned energy company PT Pertamina (Persero) and its partners.

Ariana Soemanto, Director of Upstream Oil and Gas Development at the ESDM Ministry, stated that most of the 504 idle wells—about 292 of them—are located in Sumatra. A majority are onshore wells (445), with the remaining 59 located offshore.

“Most of the idle wells that have partnership potential are in the Sumatra region,” Ariana explained during the 2025 IPA Convex event at ICE BSD on Thursday (May 22, 2025).

She further detailed the onshore wells by region: 107 in Aceh, Jambi, and Bengkulu; 185 in South Sumatra; 47 in West Java; 16 in northern East Java; 79 in East Kalimantan; 5 in North Kalimantan; and 6 in Nabire, Papua.

As for the 59 offshore wells, they include: 8 off the coast of southern Sumatra; 7 off the coast of Java; 8 in the offshore areas of East Kalimantan; and 36 in other parts of East Kalimantan’s offshore areas.

In addition to these, the government also plans to open auctions for 800 wells in 2027 and another 1,200 wells in 2028.

Ariana noted that a total of 4,200 wells are under Pertamina’s working area, while approximately 300 are managed by private cooperation contract contractors (KKKS).

“Out of the total, 1,700 wells will be handled directly by Pertamina, and 2,500 wells will be developed through cooperation contracts,” she said.

The Ministry estimates that the reactivation of these 4,200 idle wells could contribute an additional 12,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in lifting production within a year.