M&A in Southeast Asia - 2025 Q4

(Originally published on January 5, 2026)

Q4 has seen eleven deals announced, including the big formal announcement of the creation of NewCo, the JV between Eni and PETRONAS. Of these eleven deals, seven were in Indonesia, two in Malaysia, and one in Thailand, with the NewCo deal seeing the combination of assets in Malaysia and Indonesia. A transaction value was only announced for three of these deals, with the value of those three transactions being US $231 million.

The final deal count for 2025 is 31 deals with a total deal value of US $1,368 million (from the 11 deals with a visible value). By comparison, 2024 saw only 10 transactions with a total deal value of US $1,913 million (from five deals with a visible value).

New deals announced in Q4

The eleven deals announced in Q4 were:

1. In late-October, PETRONAS announced that they had signed a deal with Pertamina for the latter to acquire a 24.5% in the Bobara PSC in West Papua, Indonesia. No deal value was announced. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
2. In early November, Avenir Energy announced that they had completed the sale of their 30% interest in Block G01/48 (Manora) in Thailand to TIS Energy. No deal value was announced but it was completed in late-October. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
3. In early November, Eni and PETRONAS announced that they had signed a binding agreement to establish an independent company: NewCo (final name to be decided, hopefully) that will be owned 50:50 by the two companies and will combine upstream assets in Indonesia and Malaysia. I looked at the deal in more detail here, including my thoughts on which assets will be included.
4. In mid-November, Conrad Asia Energy announced they had signed a deal with PT Nations Natuna Barat ("Nations", a subsidiary of the Arsari Group) for the latter to acquire a 75% non-operated interest in the Duyung PSC. The deal will see Nations pay Conrad US $16 million and, perhaps more significantly, they will carry Conrad through to first production of the first phase on the Mako field development. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
5. As a part of the above announcement, Conrad Energy Asia announced that they had issued a withdrawal notice to Empyrean following their failure to meet cash calls. Although Empyrean announced that they dispute this. We will have to wait for the lawyers but I have counted this as a separate transaction for now. I included commentary on this here.
6. In late-November, SK Earthon announced that they had agreed to acquire a 39% stake in the North Ketapang PSC from PETRONAS Carigali. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
7. As a part of the above announcement, I was not aware that Pertamina had taken a 15% stake in this block from PETRONAS Carigali. I have therefore included it as a separate transaction assumed to have taken place at the same time. I mentioned this in my analysis of the above deal here.
8. In late-November, SMJ Energy announced that they will acquire a 20% non-operated interest in the North Sabah EOR PSC from PETRONAS Carigali. No deal value was announced. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
9. In early-December, PT Raharja Energi Cepu (RATU) announced that they had been officially named the winner in the sales process of Samudra Energy's 20% stake in the Madura Strait PSC. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
10. In early-December, Harbour Energy announced they had agreed to sell their interests in the Natuna Sea Block A PSC (28.67% + operator) and Tuna PSC (50%) to Prime Group. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
11. In mid-December, PTTEP announced they had signed a deal to acquire a 9.998% indirect interest in the SK-408 in Malayasia from TotalEnergies. I looked at the deal in more detail here.

Deals that closed in Q4

From what I can see, there are two that reached completion since my last article, these are in addition to the two deals announced this quarter that completed. The two deals are:

1. The first deal is one half of the JAPEX / EMP swap deal involving the Kangean and Gebang PSCs. The deals were announced in late-May, with the deals announced as complete by EMP in late-November.
2. The second deal is the second half of the JAPEX / EMP swap deal involving the Kangean and Gebang PSCs. The deals were announced in late-May, with the deals announced as complete by EMP in late-November.

Previously announced deals - Yet-to-complete

In addition to the nine new deals this quarter, we still have seven announced deals waiting for completion, with the majority coming from deals announced in Q2 2025.

1. The first deal was initially announced in December 2023 when an LOI was signed, with the formal agreement coming in May 2024. The deal sees Criterium Energy divest their 45% stake in the Bulu PSC in Indonesia to an as-of-yet unnamed buyer. As of early-September 2024, Criterium announced that they had received some payments from the buyer but there has been little news since. In August 2025, Criterium's presentation stated that they continue to work with buyer to close the transaction but are also evaluating alternatives to preserve value should transaction not close as intended. There has been no further news this quarter and the deal is looking less and less likely to happen.
2. The second deal is from mid-April 2025, when Conrad Asia Energy announced it had signed a settlement agreement with Coro Energy related to the latter's 15% interest in the Duyung PSC. This interest will be transferred to Conrad (now 91.5%), with Coro released from existing and future cash calls. The deal was approved by Coro shareholders in May but will still require government approval before completion.
3. The next deal is from mid-June 2025, when TotalEnergies and PETRONAS Carigali announced that they had signed two farm-in agreements that will see TotalEnergies take a 50% operated stake in the SK-301B and SK-313 PSCs from PETRONAS Carigali, who previously held 100% interest in both the blocks. Completion is likely subject to standard closing conditions.
4. The next deal came as a part of the same announcement, the same companies (TotalEnergies and PETRONAS Carigali) also announced a farm-in agreement that will see TotalEnergies take a 24.5% non-operated stake in the Bobara PSC in West Papua, Indonesia, from PETRONAS Carigali, who previously held 100% interest in the block. Again, approvals are likely required before completion.
5. The next deal came a couple of days later, when Idemitsu Kosan announced a deal to acquire a 40% interest in two assets from SK Earthon. The two assets are the SK-427 exploration PSC and the Ketapu Cluster DRO. Again, completion is likely subject to standard closing conditions.
6. The next deal is from late-July, when Valeura Energy announced it had entered into a farm-in agreement with PTTEP for the latter to acquire a 40% interest in Blocks G1/65 and G3/65. The deal requires government approval, which has been pretty slow recently.
7. The last deal is from mid-September, when MedcoEnergi announced a deal to acquire Repsol's remaining upstream interests in Indonesia, namely a 45% operated stake in the Sakakemang PSC and an 80% operated stake in the South Sakakemang PSC. Government approvals are pending.

This gives us a pretty long list of deals to-complete:

Assets on the market

I have been keeping track of the assets on the market, with these summarised in the table below:

The main changes from Q3 are:

• I have removed the Samudra's Madura Strait PSC opportunity following the deal with PT Raharja Energi Cepu.
• I have removed the Harbour Energy's Tuna PSC opportunity following the deal with Prime Group.
• I have adjusted the SK Earthon opportunity in Vietnam to reflect the larger asset set available.

Questions and feedback

If you have any questions or feedback on the article then please drop me a DM. This article is simply my opinion and is based on publicly available data and my own knowledge of the region.