Italian energy major Eni took simultaneous Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on March 18, 2026, for two major deepwater gas developments offshore East Kalimantan — the Gendalo and Gandang fields (South Hub) and the Geng North and Gehem fields (North Hub) — just 18 months after their development plans were approved in 2024. Together, the two projects are expected to deliver up to 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of gas and 90,000 barrels per day of condensate at plateau production, leveraging the Jangkrik Floating Production Unit and the Bontang LNG plant to maximize infrastructure synergies and compress development timelines.
Key Facts & Background
- The South Hub development — covering the Gendalo and Gandang fields — involves drilling seven producing wells and installing deepwater subsea production systems tied back to the Jangkrik FPU, in water depths of 1,000 to 1,800 meters.
- The North Hub development — covering Geng North and Gehem — requires drilling 16 producing wells in water depths of 1,700 to 2,000 meters, with installation of subsea systems connected to a newly built FPSO capable of processing over 1 Bcf/d of gas and 90,000 b/d of condensate, with a storage capacity of 1.4 million barrels.
- Both projects are located in the Kutei Basin within the Makassar Strait offshore East Kalimantan province — one of the most prolific hydrocarbon basins in Southeast Asia.
- The projects are expected to come online in 2028, adding material volumes of gas and LNG to Eni’s production capacity. Eni currently produces approximately 35 million barrels of oil equivalent annually in Indonesia, including 183 Bcf of gas.
- In November 2025, Eni and Malaysia’s Petronas signed an agreement to combine their respective gas assets in Indonesia and Malaysia into an equally owned joint company — to be called NewCo — designed to create a major LNG player in the Asian market. The North and South Hub FIDs will constitute a core asset base for that emerging platform.
- Eni discovered the Geng North field approximately three years ago under the North Ganal production sharing contract (PSC), and separately secured a 20-year extension to the Indonesia Deepwater Development gas project in August 2024 — covering the Ganal and Rapak blocks — providing long-term legal certainty for the development timeline.
- Eni highlighted that the development of Geng North and Gehem will establish a new production hub in the northern Kutei Basin, creating additional tie-back opportunities for future discoveries — effectively turning the current investment into a platform for further reserve monetization.
- The FIDs deliver material volumes of gas and LNG intended to support Indonesia’s long-term domestic supply needs as well as Asian export markets, in line with the government’s push to expand gas-based energy infrastructure.
Note: Multi-source AI data analytics, acknowledging the possibility of inaccuracies.
Insights
Eni’s decision to green-light both the North and South Hubs at the same time is a significant moment for Indonesia’s gas industry — and not just because of the sheer volume of gas involved. The fact that the company moved from development plan approval to final investment decision in just 18 months is unusually fast for a deepwater project of this scale. Similar projects in Southeast Asia have typically taken three to five years to reach that stage, which means Eni managed to cut the timeline by more than half through a combination of good project preparation, existing infrastructure on site, and smooth coordination with partners and the Indonesian government.
The two hubs are also closely tied to Eni’s broader plan to merge its Indonesian and Malaysian gas assets with Petronas into a new joint company — an initiative that, if completed, would create one of Asia’s larger mid-scale LNG players at a time when buyers in Japan, South Korea, and China are actively seeking long-term supply. For Indonesia specifically, these developments matter because domestic gas demand is growing while older fields in Kalimantan are declining. The 2 Bcf/d of gas these hubs are expected to produce at peak could help fill that supply gap and keep the Bontang LNG plant — which has been running below capacity for years — more fully utilized.
That said, the execution risks are real. Building a new FPSO vessel, drilling 23 deepwater wells across two separate hubs, and hitting a 2028 production target in one of the region’s more geologically complex basins leaves very little room for delays. Whether Eni can deliver on that timeline will be the key test of whether this project lives up to its ambition.