Italian oil and gas giant Eni and Malaysia’s state energy company Petronas have signed an investment agreement to establish a new joint venture in Indonesia and Malaysia. Freshfields is representing Petronas, while Skrine, CMS Law and Assegaf Hamzah & Partners (AHP) are acting for Eni.
Partner Philip Morgan and counsel Jeremy Tan led the Freshfields legal team. Skrine partners Fariz Abdul Aziz and Wei Xian Tan acted as Malaysian counsel for Eni, while CMS Law partner Tom Mallalieu and AHP partner M Insan Pratama acted as Indonesian counsel.
Under the agreement terms, Eni and Petronas will set up a 50:50-owned joint venture vehicle. Eni and Petronas will each contribute their interests in a total of 19 upstream assets located in Malaysia and Indonesia to form a financially independent entity, called NewCo.
NewCo plans to invest more than USD15 billion in the next five years. This investment will support the development of at least eight new projects and the drilling of 15 exploration wells, with the goal of producing 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in discovered reserves.
Following the signing of the agreement, Eni and Petronas will work to secure all required regulatory, governmental and partner approvals in both Malaysia and Indonesia. Eni expects the deal to be completed in 2026, after securing all the customary and governmental approvals.
