President Prabowo's Visit to Japan Yields Strategic Commitments to Promote Energy Transition and Accelerate Masela Block
President Prabowo Subianto of the Republic of Indonesia’s visit to Tokyo, Japan, has produced concrete steps to accelerate strategic investments, particularly in the energy sector and downstream processing. The main focus of the visit encompasses speeding up the national energy transition as well as the development of the Masela Block project.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia revealed that he received direct instructions from President Prabowo to ensure that the two main agendas of the visit proceed optimally.
“Following the instructions from President Prabowo, I was tasked with carrying out two things during the visit to Japan. The first is to ensure the acceleration of investments in the energy transition. The second concerns INPEX and the Masela Block,” Bahlil stated in a press release to the media in Tokyo on Monday (30/03/2026).
Bahlil explained that the Masela Block project has now achieved significant certainty after a long process spanning decades. According to him, the basic value of the project development (DPOD) reaches around $20 billion, with an additional approximately $1 billion for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to make it more environmentally friendly.
“Following President Prabowo’s instructions in 2025, we held intensive meetings and, alhamdulillah, it is now complete, with the total project amounting to $20.9 billion because of the addition of $1 billion for CCS; the DPOD is $20 billion. However, with the current geopolitical developments, it is likely to increase. So the total investment for us is approximately over 300 trillion (rupiah),” Bahlil disclosed.
Furthermore, Bahlil emphasised that President Prabowo has instructed the acceleration of the project’s implementation, given its strategic role in strengthening national energy resilience.
“If we can achieve this, our energy resilience in the oil and gas sector will be even stronger, and at the same time, it will position Indonesia as one of the world’s gas players,” he asserted.
In addition to the Masela Block, the government is also reinforcing commitments to accelerate the transition to new renewable energy. Bahlil stressed that Indonesia will optimise all the energy potentials it possesses amid global uncertainties.
“Indeed, we are pushing to utilise all other energy potentials besides fossil fuels that we have. Why? Because we never know when this geopolitics will end. So whether geothermal, water, sun, wind, as long as there is efficient technology, we will promote it,” he said.
According to Bahlil, these achievements are inseparable from the solid coordination among ministries and institutions during the visit to Japan. “This is part of the efforts to achieve that, and all of this can certainly happen due to the good coordination carried out by Mr Secretary to the Cabinet as the class leader in coordinating these matters in Japan,” he concluded.