|
 MALAYSIA
Southeast Asia
The first exploration well in Malaysia, Menumbok-1,
was drilled in Sabah in 1897 and commercial oil was eventually
discovered at Miri in Sarawak in 1910 although this field initially only
produced 83 Bbls per day. Nearly all of Malaysia’s oil is of offshore
origin, in fact it was not until 1975, after output had begun from
offshore West Malaysia, that the country passed the 1,000 Bbls per day
mark.
 The
continental shelf which underlies the South China Sea, is divided into 3
producing sedimentary basins, the Malay basin on the west, and the
Sarawak and Sabah basins on the east, separated by Brunei’s offshore
waters. Most oil and gas production comes from the Malay basin, east of
West Malaysia where water depths are nowhere greater than 90 m.
There is no identified petroleum potential in the shallow
water Malacca Strait area on the west of the West Malaysian peninsula.
Malaysia is similar to most of the world’s major offshore
producing areas, in that it was intensively drilled during the 1970s and
1980s and in 2004 seemed to be near peak oil production. However,
successes in the deep waters of Sabah have ensured that the country will
maintain output for several more years.
The state company, Petronas established in 1974, oversees
licensing and its exploration and production unit, Petronas Carigali, is
very active in Malaysia and elsewhere. Esso and Shell are otherwise by
far the biggest operators and they continue to invest in satellite
developments and exploration to maintain production rates.
West Malaysia: In West Malaysia, 5 gas fields,
four in the north of the Malay basin and one (Duyong) in the south east,
produce though pipelines to Kerteh where Peninsula Malaysia’s gas
processing facilities and the Trengganu oil terminal are located. Around
14 fields deliver oil (via the Tapis field) and gas (via the Duyong
line) to Kerteh from the centre east of the basin. More than half of
Malaysia’s oil production comes from the Tapis field with Esso the
largest foreign oil producer in West Malaysia.
 Esso operates eight fields, the second largest being the
Seligi field, which added a 28-well satellite platform (Seligi-F) in
2003. In 2002 Esso began production from the Larut field in the northern
Block PM5, which reached peak production of 140,000 Bbls per day in
2004. Talisman discovered the South Angsi oil field in Block PM305 in
2003, which came onstream in 2005 at around 15,000 Bbls per day.
These developments have and will offset some of the
decline being realised in the older accumulations. The same is true for
gas as there are several undeveloped discoveries located throughout the
basin. West Malaysia has two formerly disputed border regions with oil
and gas discoveries. Gas exploitation is proceeding in the
Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA), located in the lower
part of the Gulf of Thailand and governed by the Malaysia-Thailand Joint
Authority (MTJA).
The JDA covers blocks A-18, B-17 and C-19. The Petroleum
Authority of Thailand (PTT) and Petronas agreed in 1999 to build a gas
pipeline from the JDA to a processing plant in Songkla, Thailand, and a
pipeline linking to the Thai and Malaysian gas grids. Lundin Oil also
brought onstream the Bunga Kekwa field in 2002, which reached peak ouput
of 40,000 Bbls per day in 2003 through an FPSO and dedicated pipeline to
Kerteh. This field, discovered in 1994, lies in the PM-3 commercial area
jointly owned by Malaysia and Vietnam.
Along with undeveloped discoveries some yet-to-find oil
potential exists in the basin and new, smaller finds continue to be
announced. The Penyu basin to the south may also have potential.
Sarawak: In central offshore Sarawak the Luconia
province of the Borneo basin is primarily a gas region, production
coming from Miocene reef carbonates. Nearer to shore the Balingian
province produces oil from deltaic sediments of the same age. In total
around 20 gas, oil and gas, and oil fields produce from these two areas
into two offshore gas and oil gathering systems that both run to
Bintulu, where Sarawak’s LNG plant and refinery are situated.
On the east of Sarawak a group of 9 older, dominantly oil
fields, lie close to the Brunei border and produce from deltaic
sandstones of the Baram delta into the Lutong/Miri oil terminal. Shell
operates most of the fields.
Malaysia has expanded its Bintulu LNG complex in Sarawak,
constructing the MLNG Tiga (three) facility with two trains having a
total capacity of 7.6 million tons of LNG annually, requiring 10.5 Bcm
per year of gas. Completed in April 2003, Bintulu is the largest LNG
plant in the world, with a total capacity of 23 million tonnes per year
(requiring 32 Bcm of gas).
Sabah: In Sabah deltaic sediments produce some oil
from sandstones, but volumes are smaller than in the other regions of
Malaysia. Sabah’s first producing field was Tembungo, discovered
offshore in 1971 by Esso. It began producing in 1975 and is operated by
Petronas Carigali.
Seven oil fields produce along with some gas into the
Labuan terminal on Pulau Labuan with Shell the only foreign operator.
Shell, having brought onstream the Kinabalu field in the SB-1 block in
1997, raised its production to 36,000 Bbls per day in 2003 plus 0.3 Bcm
per year of gas but the shallow waters of Sabah are generally in
decline.
However, there exist extensive deepwater turbidite
reservoirs off Sabah. The first deep water blocks were awarded to Shell
in 1996 and Petronas Carigali in 1997. Bakau Deep-1 in the west was a
gas/condensate discovery but the biggest success was in 2002 when Murphy
discovered the Kikeh oil field in Block K in 1,340 m of water.
Block K was awarded in 1999. Reserves in the range of
400-700 mm Bbls are estimated, making it one of the largest oil finds in
South East Asia in the last decade. Petronas Carigali and Shell have
also made deep water oil discoveries. Gumusut-1 in 1,000 m of water and
Malikai in 565 m of water were drilled by Shell in Blocks J and G
respectively.
As the deep waters are exploited Malaysia and Brunei must
resolve border disputes that arose after Petronas discovered an oil
field 150 km off the coast of Sabah in 2002. Both Malaysia and Brunei
are claiming the area as part of their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
|
Back to ASIA-PACIFIC