Indonesia will review its energy export contracts with countries that do not respect it and could stop supplying them, Coordinating Minister for Downstreaming and Energy Transition Bahlil Lahadalia said on 22 October.
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“I will carry out an evaluation, and I will not hesitate to consider not exporting to countries that do not respect Indonesia,” said Bahlil, who is also Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. He was speaking aboard a gas production vessel off East Kalimantan, at the inauguration of new facilities at the Jangkrik and Maha gas fields as the ceremony was broadcast on his ministry’s YouTube channel.
He did not name any country. His remarks came after weeks in which Singapore and Malaysia pressed Jakarta over haze from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, with Singapore serving legal notices on 10 Indonesian companies it suspects of contributing to the haze.
Countries that respect Indonesia would still be welcome to buy its energy, Bahlil said.
“But for countries that respect Indonesia, where we respect each other, even if they do not have a contract, we will draw up a contract and we will give it to them. That is the principle of equality,” he added.
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I will not hesitate to consider not exporting to countries that do not respect Indonesia.
Bahlil Lahadalia, Coordinating Minister for Downstreaming and Energy Transition, Republic of Indonesia
Bahlil linked his remarks to a plenary cabinet meeting held the previous day to mark two years of Prabowo’s government, where the president called for Indonesia to protect its natural wealth and ordered action against companies behind fires spreading haze across the region.
“The direction is clear: our natural resources will be used for domestic needs first. This is survival mode,” Bahlil said.
Opening that meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on 21 October, Prabowo told ministers that Indonesia had to protect its natural wealth, likening the Southeast Asian nation’s resources to its “lifeblood”.
Bahlil later told reporters that Indonesia might not renew gas export contracts with neighbouring countries, citing domestic needs.
Five months ago, Bahlil gave oil and gas producers a different message. He had assured them that gas export quotas would not be cut in 2026, including volumes contracted to overseas buyers.
Haze raises tensions with neighbours
The latest remarks come amid tensions with Singapore and Malaysia over haze from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. At the cabinet meeting, Prabowo ordered police, prosecutors and the forestry ministry to investigate companies behind the blazes, while rebuking Indonesia’s critics.
“For certain countries that like to insult the Indonesian nation, in time we will reveal the companies,” Prabowo told local media.
Singapore’s Senior Minister K Shanmugam said the Singapore Exchange had questioned seven listed agricultural companies about possible links to the fires, adding that city-states’s actions aligned with Prabowo’s policies.
Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup said that the country reserved the right to demand effective action from Indonesia and would raise the haze at an Asean meeting in Manila.
These developments also put Singapore’s energy ties with Indonesia in focus. The city-state, which generates around 95 per cent of its electricity from natural gas, imports Indonesian gas mainly by pipeline under contracts that expire at the end of 2028, according to MTI.
Singapore has, however, long planned to reduce its reliance on piped gas. Lliquefied natural gas (LNG) accounted for more than half its gas imports in 2024, and a second LNG terminal is being built
Jakarta previously floated halting gas exports to Singapore in 2011, but later clarified that only the supply source – not volumes or prices – would change.
