Tycoon Hilmi Panigoro-Backed Medco Energi To Buy Repsol’s Indonesian Gas Field Stake For $425 Million

Medco Energi Internasional—backed by tycoon Hilmi Panigoro and his family—has agreed to buy Spanish energy giant Repsol’s 24% stake in the Corridor Block for $425 million, giving it a controlling interest in Indonesia’s third-largest gas field.

Once the transaction is completed in the third quarter of this year, Medco’s stake in the Corridor Block will increase to 70%, while Indonesian state-run Pertamina Hulu Energi Corridor will hold the rest, the Jakarta-listed company said in a statement on Thursday.

“This acquisition supports our strategy of owning and developing high-quality, cash-generative assets and reaffirms our commitment to national development where natural gas is a vital bridge to a lower-carbon future,” Hilmi Panigoro, president director of Medco Energi said in the statement.

Located in South Sumatra, the Corridor Block—comprising seven gas fields and an oil field—produced 58,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day last year. It has long-term contracts with customers in Indonesia and Singapore.

Medco Energi has been scaling up its oil and gas assets. Last year, it produced over 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, according to its latest annual report.

With a net worth of $3.25 billion, Panigoro and his family are among the wealthiest in Indonesia. Medco Energi, which was founded in 1980 by his late brother Arifin, teamed up with billionaire Agoes Projosasmito in 2016 to buy Amman Mineral for $2.6 billion. The mining firm went public in 2023, raising $710 million from its IPO.