Jakarta. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim recently told President Prabowo Subianto that he wanted to see stronger oil and gas cooperation with the close neighbor.

The state-run oil and gas firm Pertamina is already partnering with its Malaysian counterpart Petronas to manage the Masela gas block in Maluku. Their deal was among the topics that had come up when Anwar hosted Prabowo on a state visit to Kuala Lumpur on Monday. In the joint press briefing, Anwar gave his word that these two companies would continue to work together. Malaysia is even open to the possibility of having Petronas explore new areas of cooperation with Pertamina.

“It is our commitment to ensure a continued cooperation between Petronas and Pertamina. And for these two regional oil and gas giants to agree on exploring new things,” Anwar said.

The Masela block encompasses the Abadi liquefied natural gas or LNG project. It was originally run by Japanese oil giant Inpex and its British counterpart Shell.

But in  2023, Pertamina and Petronas officially purchased Shell’s 35 percent participating interest in the Masela block.Pertamina obtained 20 percent of the stake, while the remaining 15 percent participating interest went to Petronas. The purchase deal was worth up to $650 million. Inpex still keeps its 65 percent participating interest in the project. The Masela block is estimated to produce 9.5 million tons of LNG each year.  Inpex’s official website states that the Abadi LNG project is currently in “preparation for development”.

The Abadi gas field’s discovery dates back to 2000. Early last month, Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani told reporters that the project would likely finally  begin in 2025. It is set to come on stream by 2030. Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said at the time that the project was trying to finish the so-called front-end engineering design (FEED). This step aims to figure out the technical requirement and the overall costs.