The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has opened up opportunities for State energy company PT Pertamina to open investment in the U.S. upstream oil and gas sector, an initiative meant as one way to negotiate import tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

"(Investment) in the upstream, but not yet final, currently still in negotiations. Not fixed, still finalizing," Acting Director General of Oil and Gas, Tri Winarno, said on Monday, April 14, 2025.

He said Pertamina's investment was a regular plan carried out by other State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). He gave an example of the state holding mining company MIND ID, which is exploring cooperation with the Australian government in exploiting lithium for electric car batteries in Australia.

"There's no problem. PT Timah’s exploration to Africa is also no problem," Tri said.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, said that there are Indonesian companies that will invest in the U.S.

He cited that this is one of the negotiation points that will be carried out to meet with representatives of the U.S. Government regarding the 32 percent import tariff, the implementation of which is currently being postponed.

"Technically, Indonesia will also be there. In addition to inviting American investment in Indonesia, Indonesia will also have companies that will invest in America," Airlangga said.

Airlangga, however, did not explain in detail which companies would invest in the U.S. According to him, this decision will depend on the results of negotiations between Indonesia and the U.S. regarding the trade tariffs applied by Uncle Sam.

Vice President for Corporate Communication at Pertamina, Fadjar Djoko Santoso, said that until now he had not received information whether Pertamina would invest or not.

"But as we have said, until now we have actually collaborated with several companies in the U.S. that could possibly be one of the government's studies," Fadjar said.

He cited the collaboration with U.S. companies that Pertamina has carried out on energy commodities, namely crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Investment and Downstream, Todotua Pasaribu, said that SOEs engaged in the oil and gas sector have the opportunity to invest in the U.S. Currently, there are several companies in the sector that have invested abroad.

According to Todotua, the oil and gas sector is one of the strategic commodities with potential. This is because Indonesia already has experience in overseas investment through Pertamina's subsidiaries.

"This means that strategically, what we see is that we can invest there, which we can also absorb in line with the interests of our country," Todotua said.

However, the direction of this investment strategy is still being discussed further according to the results of negotiations with the U.S. Government. He also declined to mention which companies would invest, whether from SOEs or private companies.