Consultancy estimates regional offshore engineering, procurement and construction spending to reach $7.7 billion in 2026
APAC’s offshore engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) spending in 2026 is expected to total US$7.7 billion, up from US$2.7 billion this year, according to consultancy Westwood Global Energy.
The UK-headquartered consultancy forecast that Asia-Pacific will account for 27% of global offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation investment between 2025 and 2029.
Westwood added that players in Southeast Asia are expected to award US$37 billion in new offshore contracts over these five years, driven by deepwater gas projects in Indonesia and emerging carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Malaysia.
Westwood’s SubseaLogix & PlatformLogix director Mark Adeosun told Upstream that five final investment decisions have been taken in the year to date, with another three expected before the end of the year for Indonesia and Malaysia, compared to just three project sanctions in 2024.
However, Adeosun cautioned that 30% of the expected 2026 FIDs in the two countries are “highly susceptible to delays due to high supply chain costs and low oil prices”.
He estimated that four floating production projects could be sanctioned in 2026 in the region.
Key projects that are expected to be formally awarded in the coming years are Eni’s Geng North floating production storage and offloading unit, which will be won by Saipem, and the Inpex-operated Abadi floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in Indonesia; as well as the concept design for PTTEP’s Lang Lebah project and the BIGST cluster development — where the equal partners are Petronas Carigali and JX Nippon — both offshore Malaysia.
However, rig contract awards this year have declined in tandem with less healthy utilisation rates, the consultant said. The region’s rig supply, including cold-stacked units, comprises approximately 52 jack-ups, nine semi-submersibles, five drillships and 17 tender-assist rigs (TARs), Westwood told Upstream.
Westwood’s RigLogix director Teresa Wilkie told Upstream: “Similar to the rest of the world, [APAC] award activity is much more muted this year when compared with 2023 (4541 jack-up days and 90 drillship days awarded in 2025 YTD [year-to-date] versus 11,684 jack-up days and 608 drillship days in 2023).
“Average dayrates have been declining globally since 2023-2024 and this also applies to these countries,” Wilkie added, citing as an example the average jack-up dayrates fixed in Indonesia were US$116,000 in 2023 and US$93,750 in the current year-to-date, “and has potential to come down further”.
Westwood senior rig expert Paul Ezekiel added that challenges in the region, especially for Malaysia and Indonesia, vary from onerous contract terms to delays in regulatory and operational approval.
Delays In procuring long lead items, such as wellheads, alongside rising costs can also pose as a challenge to the offshore companies active in the region, he noted.
However, this has not entirely dampened rig contracting activity in Southeast Asia. Upstream previously reported that Malaysia-listed Lianson Fleet Group is planning to establish earlier this month a new joint venture with Vietnam’s state-owned PV Drilling to acquire, own or lease, and operate drilling rigs.
Regional drilling contractor Velesto Energy also reported higher utilisation rate of 81% in the third quarter of 2025 versus just 57% in the previous quarter.
Higher utilisation rates can pose their own challenge to some exploration projects, with Santos pushing back its wildcat drilling campaign in the Bedout sub-basin offshore Western Australia due to the lack of rig availability.
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