Bahlil asks Masela project to be completed before the presidential election

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia asked Inpex Corporation (Inpex) to accelerate the on-stream process of the Abadi Masela LNG Project to 2029.

He targeted that this permanent gas field project would be completed before the Presidential Election.

"Insyaallah he (Inpex) said 2030. I said no! 2030 is the presidential election, you make 2029. I don't want to know. You make 2029. I said it's my mother's village, it's yours. Don't keep on abuleke, I said," said Bahlil in a public lecture in Jakarta, Thursday, February 12.

He added that he had called Inpex and given a warning letter (SP) to speed up the development of the Masela project.

Bahlil even threatened to revoke the permit if the construction was not carried out quickly.

"If you don't want me, I will give you a warning letter, the second one, if not I will withdraw. There is no business. Do you want to take it to arbitration or arbitration, it's up to you!" continued Bahlil.

With the summons to the warning letter, continued Bahlil, the construction of this project has begun, even the tender for this project will begin in 2026.

"Yesterday, the construction was built in 2025. Now it has started the tender. Yesterday, SKK Migas reported to me that the total investment was 18 billion US dollars," he said.

For information, previously the Chairman of the SKK Migas Djoko Siswanto said that the groundbreaking or groundbreaking project is expected to be carried out in March 2026.

"Hopefully this can be groundbreaking before Lebaran, now we are preparing for groundbreaking, in the field," said Djoko in a Public Hearing with Commission XII of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Wednesday, February 11.

He added that the environmental impact analysis document (Amdal) will be submitted by the Ministry of Environment to SKK Migas on Thursday, February 12.

This project is projected to start operating in 2030.

"For Inpex, God willing, tomorrow it will be handed over by the Minister of Environment to the SKK Migas. It will be able to produce God willing in 2030 or sooner," said Djoko.