$9.6 Billion in Southeast Asian Upstream Assets Are for Sale Through 2027

Rystad Energy says $9.6 billion of upstream assets in Southeast Asia are up for sale through the remainder of this year and 2027, marking a move away from the earlier era when international oil companies (IOCs) were mainly divesting non-core, late-life positions. The available inventory is nearly evenly split across seller types: majors account for about $3.6 billion, independents $3.7 billion, national oil companies (NOCs) $1.4 billion and the balance comes from smaller sellers. Rystad notes that the underlying rationale for sales differs by seller group, with majors refocusing on core basins and frontier entry via partnerships, independents seeking outside capital to push pre-FID discoveries to final investment decision, and NOCs selectively rationalizing domestic late-life assets while contemplating overseas entries.

Transaction metrics have climbed as buyer appetite has hardened. Recent deals paid about $9.8 per barrel of oil equivalent for development-stage assets and more than $3 per boe for pre-FID resources, versus six-year averages of roughly $6-7/boe and $1.5/boe respectively. Rystad highlights that bidders will need more than capital to win assets — the premium a buyer can credibly justify will rest on a clear value-creation plan, a point underscored by Prateek Pandey, Head of APAC Oil & Gas Research at Rystad.

The growth push is concentrated in a limited set of basins: opportunities span nearly 45 production-sharing contracts across 12 provinces, containing about 2.8 billion boe of net resources and roughly 145,000 boepd of production. However, 72% of those resources are at the pre-FID stage and only 18% are producing. Major pre-FID gas positions are clustered in Sarawak, the Andaman Sea and the Kutei Basin, led by prospects such as Lang Lebah, Harbour Energy’s Andaman II and South Andaman, and Eni’s Kutei hub. Vietnam’s Ken Bau, with an estimated 3.7 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, is the single largest resource on offer and is more likely to be advanced via a farm-down than a straight sale.

Producing assets are a smaller portion of volumes but the most hotly contested, with 17 PSCs drawing buyer interest and a history of commanding premiums near $8 per boe. Chevron’s stake in the North Malay Basin is highlighted as a flagship producing opportunity and emblematic of broader retrenchment by majors — Chevron’s Southeast Asian resource base fell from nearly 3 billion boe in 2020 to about 300 million boe today. Rystad expects the next 18 months of deal activity to be determined by the conversion of pre-FID opportunities into larger M&A transactions, the path of premiums on producing assets, and the further evolution of deal structures toward strategic partnerships. The report also notes specific portfolio pressures — for example, dry wells in Eni’s Vietnamese holdings have increased commercial strain on Ken Bau, and Inpex may look to farm down Abadi LNG after its FID to spread development capital — both outcomes that would add more potential buyers and partners to an already competitive market.