First Published: First Break, May 2025 (Global Exploration), by Tad Choi, Nicolas Hand, Subodh Notiyal, Verity Agar and Duncan Woolmer, TGS
Exploration Trends Across Asia Pacific
Upstream exploration is making a strong comeback across Asia Pacific with recent successes sparking renewed industry enthusiasm. In 2023 material discoveries in Malaysia and Indonesia have reinvigorated interest in basins once thought mature, showing that significant upside potential remains. New significant discoveries continued to emerge across the region as recently as last year. Exploration drilling spanned from Sumatra to East Java in Indonesia and across Malaysia’s offshore basins, yielding notable discoveries such as the Bekok Deep gas/condensate discovery in Malaysia’s Malay Basin. These discoveries also highlight how
modern seismic data, whether newly acquired or reprocessed, is allowing explorers to image and access deeper plays.
Government agencies are responding by promoting new licensing rounds and acreage offerings, opening overlooked established and frontier areas to investors. For example, Malaysia’s latest bid round offered five exploration blocks across Malaysia and newly offered Technical Evaluation Assessment (TEA) blocks over the Layang Layang and Langkasuka basins. An industry supported extensive new 2D seismic acquisition campaign in 2024 allowed Bangladesh to launch its first offshore licensing round in more than a decade, inviting bids on 24 blocks covering its largely unexplored offshore waters. India continues its Open Acreage Licensing Program (OALP X launched in Feb 2025), and Indonesia continues exploration activities through its Joint Study Agreement (JSA) blocks across all the basins coupled with regular tender
blocks. This surge of opportunities reflects a clear regional strategy, boosting domestic reserves, increasing production and meeting rising energy demand, especially for natural gas. India, now the world’s third-largest energy consumer, is pushing to increase natural gas from about 7% to 15% of its energy mix by 2030.
PSDM reprocessing has enhanced existing and revealed new plays in the Sandakan Basin.
This aggressive target shows strong government backing for new gas exploration. In parallel, companies are embracing advanced geoscience technologies to de-risk these exploration opportunities. Modern multi-client seismic surveys, expansive well data libraries, and interpretation tools enable explorers to quickly explore and high-grade areas. Across Asia Pacific’s diverse geology – from mature shallow provinces to high-potential deepwater frontiers – access to modern high-fidelity seismic data and access to acreage will help to unlock further hydrocarbon resources.
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