Eni Wins 100% Stake in Sapukala Deepwater Block Next to Its Indonesian Gas Hub
Eni has been awarded a 100% participating interest in the Sapukala offshore exploration block in Indonesia’s Kutei Basin, the Italian energy major confirmed on September 24, extending its position in a deepwater area off East Kalimantan where it already operates a large gas and condensate discovery complex through a joint venture with Malaysia’s Petronas.
A deepwater block bordering an already-proven gas complex
The Sapukala block covers deepwater acreage in water depths of 1,000 to 2,500 meters and sits adjacent to Eni’s existing operated and non-operated blocks in the basin, immediately next to the planned North Hub developments. North Hub encompasses four discoveries — Geng North, Gehem, Gula and Geliga — that together hold more than 14 trillion cubic feet of gas in place and 800 million barrels of condensate, according to Eni. The new award effectively gives Eni first-mover access to acreage that sits along strike from a resource base it has already substantially de-risked through years of appraisal drilling on the neighboring blocks.
Searah, the joint venture doing the heavy lifting
North Hub is operated by Searah, a 50-50 joint venture between Eni and Petronas established in June 2026 to consolidate the two companies’ overlapping interests across the wider region. The Searah portfolio spans 19 assets — 14 in Indonesia and five in Malaysia — and currently produces approximately 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with the partners targeting more than 500,000 boe/d of sustainable production by 2028. Sapukala’s addition to Eni’s acreage position gives the company a further exploration option to feed that growth target once North Hub’s initial discoveries move into development, though Eni has not disclosed a timeline or investment figure for Sapukala itself at this stage.
How Eni secured the acreage
Eni said it secured Sapukala through a joint study conducted with an Indonesian academic institution combined with participation in the country’s first 2026 petroleum bidding round, a direct-offer process rather than a competitive open tender. The company has already completed new seismic data acquisition covering the block, which it said positions it for “accelerated further evaluation” — typically the step that precedes a decision on exploration drilling. No drilling timeline has yet been announced.
Two decades of Indonesian operations behind the new award
Eni has operated in Indonesia since 2001 and directly manages the Peri-Mahakam and Makassar Strait blocks in addition to its interests through Searah, giving the company one of the longest continuous track records among international majors active in the country’s upstream sector. The Sapukala award comes as Southeast Asian gas demand continues to grow even as regional supply costs rise — a dynamic also visible in other parts of the world’s gas and LNG markets, from Nigeria, where TotalEnergies and AMNI recently took final investment decision on the Ima gas field, to the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia has just restarted its East-West crude pipeline to restore export flexibility. For Eni, Sapukala is a low-cost way to add exploration optionality in a basin where it already understands the subsurface, rather than a bet on entirely new geology.
Sources
- Eni, company press release, “Eni awarded a new exploration licence in the prolific Kutei Basin, Indonesia,” September 24, 2026 — block details, ownership, North Hub figures, Searah portfolio data.
- World Oil and Oil & Gas Journal, independent trade press coverage, September 24, 2026 — independent confirmation of the award and block specifications.
Illustrative image. Photo: GuavaTrain, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons — source
