Indonesia Approves Kuwaiti Explorer to Develop Anambas Block in Natuna Sea 

The Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) has secured approval for its development of the Anambas block in Indonesia, where it aims to acquire more projects, officials said on Thursday. 

KUFPEC will invest about USD 1.54 billion to develop the Anambas block to produce 55 million standard cubic feet a year with an estimated 185 billion cubic feet of total gas sales, upstream oil and gas regulator SKK Migas said. 

The company aims to reach a final investment decision early next year with production expected to start in 2028, country manager Sara Al-Baker told reporters. 

The company sees Indonesia as a strategic location for expansion, its chief executive, Eisa Al-Maraghi, said. 

"We are working with other partners in Indonesia to reach a mutual agreement to look into more assets to be acquired," Al-Maraghi told a press conference, but declined to give details. 

The Anambas development includes installation of subsea pipelines connecting the field to existing facilities in the West Natuna Transportation System, KUFPEC said. 

It is expected to deliver gas to both domestic and regional markets when it begins production, the company added. 

Anamabas will be KUFPEC’s second project in the gas-rich Natuna Sea. It has a 33% participating interest in Natuna Block A, which supplies gas to Singapore. 

The company, which has stepped up activities in Indonesia in recent years, is part of two separate consortia that signed contracts last year to explore Indonesia’s Melati and Amanah blocks. 

Elsewhere in the Natuna Sea, KUFPEC has completed its joint-study on Natuna D-Alpha block and is reviewing the result of the study, Al-Baker said. 

Natuna D-Alpha has one of world’s biggest gas resources in the world but has high carbon dioxide content. 

Once a member of OPEC, Indonesia is now a net importer of oil due to ageing wells and lack of investment, and President Prabowo Subianto is keen to reverse the trend and reduce reliance on imported energy. 

Source: Reuters 

Australia’s Albanese wants Indonesia in CPTPP and OECD

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday that Canberra would back Jakarta’s candidacy to the rich country club OECD and the Trans-Pacific trading group CPTPP. 

Indonesia has set its sights on joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), with the application letter already sent last September. At the same time, the mineral-rich country is in the process of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Just days after being sworn in, Albanese embarked on his first-ever overseas trip of his second term. Close neighbor Indonesia became his first stop. Amid these application processes, Prabowo called on the newly reelected Albanese to back the two groups’ expansion with Indonesia a request that the Australian politician had said yes to. 

“I assure you, Mr. President [Prabowo], of Australia’s support of you [Indonesia] joining the OECD and your accession to the CPTPP,” Albanese said at the joint presser in Jakarta, not long after the bilateral talks. 

Albanese called Southeast Asia as the fastest-growing region in modern history, with Indonesia being central to that growth, something that he also attributed to the presence of “free and fair trade”. 

"Our region comes first. I'm here in Indonesia because no relationship is more important to Australia than this one. No nation is more important to prosperity, security, and the stability of the Indo-Pacific than Indonesia,” Albanese said. 

Prabowo admitted to wanting Australia's support as the country currently holds CPTPP’s rotating chairmanship. The retired army general also called Australia an “important member” in the OECD. The two leaders had also agreed to increase trade and investment. To Prabowo, the current global economic uncertainties had made stronger ties “increasingly more important”, although the Indonesian leader did not explicitly mention the US’ tariffs that also hit the two neighboring nations. 

Indonesia wants to join the OECD to become a high-income nation. Jakarta’s CPTPP candidacy stems from its wish to unlock non-traditional markets, namely the largely untapped Latin American region. However, US President Donald Trump’s tariff war has become a wake-up call for Indonesia to increase global trade beyond Washington, among others, by joining such clubs. Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto told the Jakarta Globe not long ago that Indonesia was getting closer to securing the CPTPP seat. 

“The CPTPP members will convene sometime in the middle of this year. From there on, they would decide on the next steps for [our] accession [to the group],” Airlangga said at the time. 

The OECD is not a free trade agreement that eliminates tariffs. However, the organization requires Indonesia to make adjustments to meet its stringent standards, even putting Jakarta under rigorous technical reviews. Australia joined the OECD in 1971. Candidate member Indonesia wants to be part of the elite club by 2027. Indonesia also has to secure all member countries’ approval to be part of the OECD family. The 38-member grouping encompasses Japan, Canada, the US, and even Israel. 

The CPTPP is a free trade pact that brings together Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the UK. Once the pact gets fully implemented, 99 percent of the tariff lines will be duty-free when the signatories trade with each other. 

Official statistics showed that Indonesia-Australia trade had declined from nearly $3.4 billion in January-March 2024 to just USD 3 billion over the same period this year. Indonesia ran a deficit of almost USD 1.1 billion in its Q1 2025 trade with Australia. In other words, Jakarta is buying more Australian goods than it is exporting to the neighboring country. 

Source: Jakarta Globe 

Consumer Confidence Inches up from Multi-Month Low

Consumer confidence in Indonesia has improved slightly but remains at a low level, with an April survey by the central bank showing respondents more positive on the current state of the economy, even as they expect worse times to lie ahead. 

The latest monthly survey from Bank Indonesia (BI), released on Friday, shows that the consumer confidence index (CCI) recovered slightly in April to 121.7 points, which marks a slight rebound from 121.1 in the preceding month but is still down significantly from 127.7 in December last year. 

In a press statement published along with the survey, BI spokesman Ramdan Denny Prakoso said the increase signaled continued optimism about the country’s economic situation. He noted that consumers’ perception of current economic conditions had improved in April to a reading of 113.7, up from 110.6 in March. 

All three components of the current economic condition subindex, relating to views on current income, perceptions of job availability and plans for durable goods purchases, have seen improvements from the previous month. 

Meanwhile, the economic expectations subindex dropped to 129.8 points, extending a decline seen in the past three months. Consumers’ income expectations improved slightly, but not enough to make up for poorer assessments in the other two components of the economic expectations subindex, which refer to expectations about job availability and business activity. 

Expectations on job availability and business activity have been on a downward trend since January as reports about mass layoffs and weakening spending power unsettle many consumers. 

Manpower Minister Yassierli announced on Monday that 24,036 people had been laid off nationwide in the first four months of this year for various reasons, including bankruptcy, downsizing and relocation. That official figure, which represents only part of all layoffs, marked an increase from the same period last year, given that the current figure was more than a third of the full-year tally of 77,965 people in 2024. 

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI), citing its own records, reported that some 60,000 people had been laid off in the first two months of this year alone. The union’s layoff data is compiled from its regional branches based on direct reports submitted by impacted workers of 50 unionized companies. 

Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 4.87 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the first quarter of 2025, down from 5.11 percent in the same period last year. The data published by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Monday reflected the slowest economic growth since the coronavirus pandemic, which was partly blamed on weak consumer spending. 

BI’s CCI data further shows that consumers’ disposable income dropped in April to 74.8 percent from 75.3 percent in March, while the share of income held as savings rose to 14.8 percent from 13.8 percent. 

Retail industry representatives have urged the government to hand out shopping vouchers to consumers to boost people's spending power and thereby stimulate economic growth. 

Indonesian Retail and Tenants Association (Hippindo) chairman Budihardjo Iduansjah suggested the government disburse shopping vouchers directly to the public, especially to low-income households, to buoy up economic growth in the country. 

Source: The Jakarta Post