Bahlil Announces Discovery of Giant Gas Field, Here is Its Location
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia has revealed that the Italian oil and gas company Eni has just discovered a new “giant” gas reserve in Indonesia.
The discovery comes from the Geliga-1 exploration well drilled in the Ganal Block, Kutai Basin, off the coast of East Kalimantan.
Bahlil disclosed that based on initial estimates, this find has the potential for gas resources of around 5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) and 300 million barrels of condensate.
“I want to announce that Eni has just obtained a new giant discovery from Geliga, yielding 5 TCF of gas, and we have 300 million barrels of condensate,” Bahlil stated at a press conference at the Ministry of ESDM on Monday (20/4/2026).
According to Bahlil, Eni targets a significant increase in gas production in the coming years. Current gas production, at around 600-700 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), is projected to rise to about 2,000 MMSCFD by 2028.
Furthermore, by 2030, gas production is expected to increase again to around 3,000 MMSCFD. In addition to gas, condensate production will also be developed.
“So this is something extraordinary; this giant discovery means that by 2028 we will start producing condensate at around 90,000 barrels, and in 2029-2030 it could add another 150,000 barrels per day,” Bahlil said.
Meanwhile, according to Eni’s official statement, the Geliga-1 well was drilled to a total depth of about 5,100 metres in water depths of around 2,000 metres. The Geliga-1 discovery is part of a highly successful exploration track record in the Kutai Basin.
This find follows the giant Geng North discovery at the end of 2023, located about 20 km south of Geliga, as well as the Konta-1 well announced in December 2025. These results further affirm the significant gas potential in the area and the scalability of the existing resources.
This new discovery also comes after the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Gendalo and Gandang gas project (South Hub) and the Geng North and Gehem fields (North Hub).
The North Hub project will utilise a new floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility with a processing capacity of 1 billion standard cubic feet per day (BSCFD) of gas and 90,000 barrels of condensate per day (bph), as well as existing LNG facilities in Bontang.
This new discovery is adjacent to the undeveloped Gula gas find, which contains 2 TCF of gas and 75 million barrels of condensate. Initial assessments indicate that the combined Geliga and Gula resources have the capacity to produce an additional 1 BSCFD of gas and 80,000 bph of condensate.
Eni’s Investment Decision
It should be noted that in mid-March 2026, Eni officially made the decision to invest or Final Investment Decision (FID) for the development of deepwater gas projects in Indonesia, with an estimated investment value of around US15billionortheequivalentofRp254trillion(assuminganexchangerateofRp16, 956/US).
The large investment will be used to develop two major projects, namely Gendalo-Gandang (South Hub) and Geng North-Gehem (North Hub), located off the coast of East Kalimantan.
This investment decision was taken in mid-March 2026, just 18 months after the approval of the Plan of Development (POD) in 2024, marking an acceleration in the development of Indonesia’s deepwater gas projects.
The FID decision was conveyed by the Managing Director of Eni Indonesia to Minister of ESDM Bahlil Lahadalia on 17 March 2026.
The project utilises deepwater production technology and existing infrastructure, including the Jangkrik FPU and reactivation of Train F at the Bontang LNG Plant, enabling cost efficiency and faster gas commercialisation.
The development of Gendalo and Gandang will be carried out in water depths of 1,000-1,800 metres with the drilling of 7 production wells connected to the Jangkrik facilities.
Meanwhile, the North Hub project includes the drilling of 16 production wells in water depths of 1,700-2,000 metres, which will be connected to a new FPSO with a processing capacity of more than 1 billion standard cubic feet per day (BSCFD) of gas and 90,000 barrels of condensate per day.
Overall, the two projects have resource potential of around 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas and 550 million barrels of condensate.
Production from these gas fields is projected to materialise in 2028 and reach its peak in 2029 with a capacity of around 2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day and 90,000 barrels of condensate per day.
The produced gas will be piped to shore to supply the domestic pipeline network and support LNG production at the Bontang facility for domestic and export markets. Meanwhile, the condensate will be processed and stored at the offshore FPSO facility before being shipped by tanker.