Malaysia and Indonesia were the first countries in Southeast Asia to announce that carbon capture and storage (CCS) would play a role in decarbonising their industrial sectors. BP (LON:BP) in Indonesia, and Petronas in Malaysia, announced landmark projects in the oil and gas industry. However, while Indonesia has started having the right conversations around CCS, neighbouring Malaysia, and possibly even Thailand, appear to be making more progress within the region.
Indonesia has an ambitious target to almost double natural gas production from 6.5 billion cubic feet per day (cf/d) to 12 billion cf/d by 2030. Hitting that goal means giant undeveloped gas projects, such as Inpex’s Masela and Chevron’s IDD, must proceed rapidly.
Unlike most governments in the economically developed Western world, Indonesia’s leaders are crying out for more upstream oil and gas investment. However, even as demand is projected to rise up to four times by 2050, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is struggling to convince energy investors to come.
