Malaysia ups its energy investment ante with new oil & gas bid round

February 11, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas heavyweight Petronas, through Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM), has launched the Malaysia Bid Round 2026 (MBR 2026) to strengthen Malaysia’s position as an energy investment destination.

A man looking at a large vessel at sea — Illustration; Source: Petronas

The MBR 2026, with the theme ‘Advantaged Energy: Accelerating and Shaping Tomorrow,’ introduces nine exploration blocks across Malaysia, presenting a balanced mix of opportunities, featuring high-impact exploration block in the frontier Sandakan Basin, high-potential exploration blocks in the emerging West Sarawak Basin, and near-field exploration blocks with new play ideas in the mature Malay Basin.

The bid round also entails six discovered resource opportunities (DRO) offering ‘ready-to-develop’ pathways for monetisation, with investors and solutions providers presented with opportunities to leverage on the extensive technical information, enabling resource development platform and phased-development options, which provide ability for early monetization and near-term value creation.

Malaysia Bid Round (MBR) 2026 offers 9 Exploration Blocks and 6 Discovered Resource Opportunities; Source: Petronas

Datuk Ir. Bacho Pilong, Senior Vice President of MPM, commented: “Malaysia’s energy demand will continue to grow and upstream industry will need to fulfil this demand to power our fast-growing digital economy and manufacturing backbone.

“The economic spin-off benefits also extend to downstream industries while providing feedstock to many others. To fuel Malaysia’s upstream engine with a steady flow of opportunities, we require upstream investment in the tune of RM 50-60 billion each year.”

Petronas claims that the MBR 2026 launch demonstrated strong industry momentum and ecosystem activation, with strategic partnerships and development milestones announced in parallel with the bid round offering.

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The company signed a series of memoranda of understanding (MoUs), said to underscore industry confidence and reinforce Malaysia as high-growth energy hub, including MoUs with Global FCNG, ZDA Corporation, and MTC Engineering, which broaden the scope of partnership opportunities and enhance the country’s technology‑driven solutions ecosystem.

With the aim of advancing its energy transition and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) ambitions, Petronas is also expanding collaboration beyond traditional PSC boundaries through the borderless initiative with memorandum of agreement signed between Petronas Carigali and Hibiscus Oil & Gas Malaysia.

Leveraging the CBijak Malaysia Landscape framework, the initiative integrates workplans across the PSCs offshore Malaysia, perceived to further optimize resource development and enhance commercially viable CO2 management solutions.

These developments are deemed to reinforce the country’s position as “a premium upstream destination where regulatory clarity, resource potential, and ecosystem collaboration converge to create sustained value in delivering both energy security and transition readiness,” underscored the Malaysian giant.