Oil production has been in steady decline for much of the past two decades in Indonesia, but the state aims to reverse this trend and achieve a production target of 1m barrels per day (bpd) by 2030. This will require investment from both domestic and foreign players, with policymakers searching for the right mix of state control and commercial incentives to achieve this. The upstream exploration required to boost production has been flagging, with the number of exploration wells dropping from 38 in 2017 to 21 in 2018. Global oil prices have been a factor, with the price of Brent crude falling in 2014, before rising steadily between 2016 and 2019, then dropping precipitously in 2020 as a result of the impact on demand of the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking in October 2019 in Jakarta, John Karamoy, chairman of the Oil and Gas Companies Association, stated that to meet the […]