In early 2018, the Indonesian government planned to auction 20 oil and gas blocks.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) plans to auction approximately 20 oil and gas (migas) blocks in January 2018. These migas blocks are working areas that were not successfully auctioned in 2015-2017. In addition to [link to article about unsuccessful migas blocks], the government will also auction migas blocks that have been terminated.

This auction will only include conventional working areas and will utilize a gross split (gross profit sharing) scheme for all blocks, as the tax regulations were issued late last year. Meanwhile, non-conventional blocks will be postponed due to the still low oil prices. This is the first test for the Ministry of ESDM in the migas block auction after the issuance of the gross split tax scheme regulations.

In the last three years, no national migas block auctions have been successful, coinciding with the fall in global crude oil prices to below US$30 per barrel. None of the eight migas blocks offered to investors in 2015 were sold. Similarly, in 2016, out of 14 conventional migas blocks offered, only one investor expressed interest, but it did not materialize. Then in 2017, the government auctioned 17 blocks; six investors bid on five migas blocks, but this also did not materialize.