Jun 14, 2026
Eni and Petronas have formally launched Searah, a newly created independent joint venture structured as a 50/50 partnership that merges essential operations in Indonesia and Malaysia. This milestone arrives merely seven months after the Investment Agreement was signed on November 3, 2025, and sixteen months following the Memorandum of Understanding disclosed in February 2025.
Searah unites the mutually reinforcing asset portfolios, operational strengths, and local knowledge of both energy firms to generate sustained value and superior performance across Indonesia and Malaysia.
The venture encompasses 19 assets focused on gas production and development—14 situated in Indonesia and 5 in Malaysia. Searah will commence with an initial output exceeding 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with an ambition to surpass 500,000 boe/d of consistent production within the coming three years. Every necessary regulatory, governmental, and partner consent in both Malaysia and Indonesia has been secured, and all preceding conditions have been fulfilled.
Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s Chief Executive Officer, stated that Searah embodies the company’s established satellite approach, which seeks to create specialized, premium enterprises that merge scale, efficiency, and expansion, propelled by proficiency in exploration and project delivery along with a persistent emphasis on technology and innovation. He characterized Searah as a robust new presence in Southeast Asia—the inaugural and largest venture of its kind in the area—merging Eni’s know-how with Petronas’ to foster energy resource advancement in Indonesia and Malaysia, while maintaining a firm dedication to environmental stewardship and regional development.
Tengku Muhammad Taufik, President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Petronas, remarked that Searah’s formation corresponds with Petronas’ heightened focus on applying stricter resource development discipline, more adaptable capital allocation, and a stronger priority on enduring value generation throughout the gas value chain. By capitalizing on the complementary portfolios and capabilities of both Petronas and Eni, Searah is expected to deliver the operational expertise, financial robustness, and growth potential of the two partners in addressing the region’s increasing energy demands dependably and responsibly, while also bolstering long-term supply security in Indonesia and Malaysia.
A $6 billion Revolving Credit Facility has been effectively arranged, demonstrating robust financial market confidence in funding Searah’s expansion strategies. These strategies encompass a projected investment pipeline exceeding $20 billion over the next five years. Such investments will facilitate the development of more than 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent of identified resources and unlock additional exploration prospects worth billions of boe.
Eni and Petronas hold aligned environmental and sustainability goals for Searah, and they anticipate that the partnership will enhance operations while promoting economic growth and local prospects in both nations. Searah’s autonomous and integrated operational framework is also expected to yield considerable efficiencies, especially in logistics and technology.
Searah’s management team leverages extensive expertise from both parent companies. All personnel from Eni Indonesia and Petronas Indonesia have moved to Searah, along with the creation of Searah Malaysia, a separate entity formed to oversee Malaysian holdings.
Searah’s debut comes shortly after the Final Investment Decisions for the Gendalo and Gandang fields (South Hub), as well as the Geng North and Gehem fields (North Hub), which Eni announced in March. These projects contain nearly 10 trillion cubic feet of gas initially in place and roughly 550 million barrels of associated condensate, with output anticipated to commence in 2028 and reach a plateau of 2 billion standard cubic feet per day of gas and 90,000 barrels per day of condensate by 2029.
It also follows Eni’s recent disclosure of the major Geliga-1 gas find in the Ganal block within the Kutei basin, estimated to hold around 5 Tcf of gas and 300 million barrels of condensate in place. The well has shown outstanding reservoir characteristics, with the capacity to produce approximately 200 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and 10,000 bpd of condensate.
Searah’s establishment supports the allocation of capital and resources needed to meet a near-term equity production goal of 500,000 boe/d, while also progressing additional development prospects arising from the Geliga exploration well’s success.
Eni has operated in Indonesia since 2001 and presently maintains a varied upstream portfolio covering exploration, development, and production. Net output is roughly 90,000 boe/d, primarily from the Jangkrik and Merakes fields offshore East Kalimantan.