{"id":386846,"date":"2025-07-04T13:10:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386846"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:10:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:10:53","slug":"quiet-archipelagos-embrace-of-hydrocarbons-speaks-loudly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386846","title":{"rendered":"Quiet Archipelago\u2019s Embrace of Hydrocarbons Speaks Loudly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Vijay Jayaraj<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Western leaders and climate activists obsess over the smokestacks of India and China, they ignore the quiet giant of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, the world\u2019s fourth most populous nation and an economic powerhouse, is making grand moves in securing sources for fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an economy expected to expand annually by more than 5% and a population swelling to 300 million by 2030, energy demand is surging and Indonesia is relying largely on hydrocarbons to meet it. Suppliers of the energy will range from state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina to major Western companies to new alliances with Russia and Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fragmented archipelago with limited \u201crenewable\u201d sources, Indonesia looks at fossil fuels not as a \u201cbridge\u201d in a contrived transition to a \u201cgreen\u201d future but as the road to economic success. Coal accounts for more than 60% of electricity generation, while oil fuels transportation and supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indonesia\u2019s road map is practical: build what works, scale what\u2019s reliable, and invest where returns are guaranteed. That means oil, gas, coal and the infrastructure to move them \u2013 pipelines, refineries, tankers and export terminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to imports, the country is not shy about tapping geopolitically alienated sources. Following high-level visits, including one by President-elect Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia is exploring increased imports of Russian oil and gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indonesian government is also in advanced talks with Russian oil giant Rosneft for a massive investment for the Tuban oil refinery project in East Java, which is estimated to be valued at $24 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April, Indonesia awarded five new oil and gas blocks in the Gaea offshore exploration area to a consortium of global players: Britain\u2019s Enquest, BP and China\u2019s CNOOC. The Gaea and Gaea II blocks in West Papua have a combined potential of 18 billion barrels of oil and as much as 107 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chevron\u2019s potential return to Indonesia marks another seismic shift. The American oil giant is scouting large gas reserves in East Kalimantan and has confirmed talks to reenter Indonesia\u2019s upstream sector, citing enormous untapped reserves in the Kutai Basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, TotalEnergies secured a share of almost 25% in the Bobara Block, off West Papua. This deal with Malaysian-owned Petronas marks the French company\u2019s reentry into Indonesia\u2019s upstream gas portfolio. Bobara represents a high-stakes, high-output deep-sea gas play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not solely reliant on foreign capital, Indonesia is empowering its own assets. Pertamina International Shipping, the maritime logistics arm of the state-owned giant, is undertaking a colossal $8 billion fleet expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pertamina\u2019s upstream arm, meanwhile, secured the Binaiya Block in Maluku, with estimated reserves of 6.7 billion barrels of oil and 15 trillion cubic feet of gas. Pertamina\u2019s refinery plans a capacity increase of 150% to reduce dependency on imports and foster energy sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indonesia\u2019s energy influence extends beyond Asia. A new partnership was forged between Italy\u2019s Eni and Malaysia\u2019s Petronas, which will together manage combined assets in Indonesia and Malaysia and extract hydrocarbons for decades to come. Recently, Ghana\u2019s Petroleum Commission engaged with Indonesia\u2019s Honorary Consul to explore joint oil and gas ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s influence also can be felt in the international climate policies. Indonesia\u2019s annual energy-related CO2<\/sub> emissions, which totaled about 717 million metric tons in 2023, will rise by as much as 400 million metric tons within the next decade. This projected increase from Indonesia alone could neutralize up to 80% of the EU\u2019s total planned reduction of emissions by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a criticism of Indonesia. A country of 280 million people has every right to pursue a better life for its citizens. However, it is an illustration of the futility of policies seeking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at the expense of economic growth and the well-being of people. The belief that the West can dictate global emission standards by deindustrializing its own economies is a dangerous delusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From London to Beijing, from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul, the energy market recognizes that Indonesia is open for business. The sheer scale of the country\u2019s initiatives promises a torrent of new oil and gas that will flow for a generation, contrary to \u201cNet Zero\u201d rhetoric and timelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The archipelago\u2019s embrace of hydrocarbons has it on the move, and those dawdling on the climate policy fence should take notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commentary was first published at Real Clear Energy<\/em><\/a> on June 30, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vijay Jayaraj<\/a> is a Science and Research Associate at the <\/em>CO\u2082 Coalition<\/em><\/a>, Fairfax, Virginia. He <\/em>holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor\u2019s in engineering from Anna University, India.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Western leaders and climate activists obsess over the smokestacks of India and China, they ignore the quiet giant of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, the world\u2019s fourth most populous nation and an economic powerhouse, is making grand moves in securing sources for fossil fuels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":386848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997,691819635,691819331,691820955,691836315,691819027,691818154,691819148,691836316],"class_list":{"0":"post-386846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-carbon-dioxide-co","9":"tag-coal","10":"tag-deindustrialization","11":"tag-economic-growth","12":"tag-india-and-china","13":"tag-indonesia","14":"tag-net-zero","15":"tag-oil-and-gas","16":"tag-russian-oil-giant-rosneft","18":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Screenshot-2025-07-04-130729.png?fit=1639%2C882&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1CDs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":213474,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=213474","url_meta":{"origin":386846,"position":0},"title":"Southeast Asia at Energy-Climate Crossroad","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/08\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Southeast Asia is at the crossroads of choosing between a climate agenda hostile to fossil fuels and the energy security its population desperately needs.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-483.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-483.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-483.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-483.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":423398,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=423398","url_meta":{"origin":386846,"position":1},"title":"Trump\u2019s Withdrawal From Collapsing Climate Narrative","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The curtain is falling on the world\u2019s most expensive soap opera. 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