Indonesia Opens Opportunity to Import Oil from Brunei

Jakarta — Indonesia is opening the opportunity to import crude oil from Brunei Darussalam as one of the options to maintain the stability of national energy supply.

The discussion emerged from a meeting between Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and Brunei Darussalam’s Deputy Minister (Energy) at the Prime Minister’s Office Dato Seri Paduka Awang Haji Mohamad Azmi Bin Haji Mohd Hanifah.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Indo Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum (IPEM) in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday (15 March 2026).

Bahlil described the meeting as an opportunity to strengthen energy resilience through the diversification of oil supply sources.

Brunei’s current oil production stands at approximately 100,000 to 110,000 barrels per day. This capacity is viewed as opening prospects for Indonesia to explore importing oil.

“The exploration of crude oil imports from Brunei is one of the strategic options we are promoting, whilst ensuring the availability of national energy supply remains secure,” Bahlil said in a written statement on Monday (16 March 2026).

The Brunei delegation expressed interest in learning from Indonesia’s experience in diversifying power generation, particularly renewable energy. Brunei currently plans to increase its national power generation capacity five-fold, targeting an additional capacity of approximately 4 gigawatts (GW) from its current capacity of around 1 GW.

“This is a golden moment for regional collaboration. Brunei recognises that Indonesia has made greater progress and has a structured approach to developing power generation from various energy sources, whilst Brunei currently relies on gas for 99 per cent of its electricity generation and wishes to reduce this proportion,” Bahlil explained.

Additionally, Brunei is also interested in the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology applied by PT Pertamina (Persero) to increase oil production from mature wells.

Bahlil stated his readiness to facilitate cooperation between Brunei and Indonesia’s state-owned energy companies.

“We are prepared to cooperate on sharing experience and knowledge and to discuss technical matters. I will gladly prepare a platform to share and learn together,” he said.