Eni CEO: Big Oil Bets on Southeast Asia and Latin America

Global oil and gas majors are steering fresh capital towards Southeast Asia and Latin America as persistent shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz reshape supply strategies, according to Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi. Addressing an Italian parliamentary committee, Descalzi argued that Middle Eastern geopolitical risk would endure even after any peace settlement, leaving established producers such as Russia and the Gulf states exposed to lasting supply constraints and redrawing global energy flows in the process.

Southeast Asia stands out as a principal beneficiary, with a wave of final investment decisions on gas projects that Descalzi suggested could lift regional output by roughly 18 per cent. Central to this push is Searah, a newly launched 50/50 joint venture between Eni and Malaysia's PETRONAS that brings together 19 upstream gas assets spread across Indonesia and Malaysia. The venture is intended to speed up regional gas developments and lift production, underpinned heavily by Eni's deepwater interests in the Kutei Basin off East Kalimantan, including its North and South Hub projects.

Latin America is drawing comparable attention, with tens of billions of dollars flowing into large-scale developments led by Argentina and Guyana. Eni, alongside Abu Dhabi's XRG, is involved in the roughly US$30 billion Argentina LNG export complex in Río Negro, while a US$1.2 billion, 527-kilometre trunk pipeline is being built to move gas from the Neuquén basin to the Atlantic coast. Descalzi also flagged North and Sub-Saharan Africa as important to long-term energy security, noting that Sub-Saharan operations already contribute around 19 per cent of Eni's output.

For Malaysian and wider Southeast Asian maritime and oil and gas readers, the signals are significant. The Searah tie-up positions PETRONAS at the centre of a consolidated regional gas portfolio, potentially generating sustained demand for offshore engineering, deepwater support vessels, subsea services and fabrication work tied to the Kutei Basin hubs. A projected uplift in regional gas output would also strengthen the case for supporting infrastructure, from processing to export logistics. As majors recalibrate away from Hormuz-dependent routes, Southeast Asia's growing status as a favoured investment destination could translate into steadier project pipelines and employment across the local supply chain.