PHR Explores Unconventional Oil Fields, How Large Is the Potential?

The government is continuing to spur the performance of the upstream oil and gas industry as a strategy to increase production and strengthen national energy security. Pertamina Hulu Energi, as the upstream subholding of PT Pertamina (Persero), is affirming its role in driving oil and gas exploration and production in Indonesia, amid the challenges faced by the domestic industry, which is dealing with ageing oil and gas fields and increasingly difficult development processes. President Director of Pertamina Hulu Rokan, Muhamad Arifin, stated that PHR’s efforts to boost production are being implemented through a number of strategies, including entering a ‘new business’ in one of the discovered reservoirs, namely unconventional oil and gas (MNK). Throughout 2025, PHR has two ‘maintain baseline’ strategies: maximising production to curb the rate of natural decline so that output can reach 151,500 barrels of oil per day (BOPD), contributing 24-25% of Indonesia’s oil and gas production. PHR is also promoting the development of new and renewable energy through the use of solar cells and decarbonisation programmes, as well as entering new business lines. Specifically for the MNK Project, PHR is pushing development at two oil and gas wells in the Rokan Working Area, namely the Gulamo Well and the Kelok Well, with resources reaching 740 million BOPD. PHR is targeting additional drilling of eight wells by 2027 to increase Indonesia’s oil and gas production by up to 40,000 BOPD.