Petronas, partners strike oil at 2 new sites in March
Business Times Malaysia
By KAMARUL YUNUS
02 April 2001
IN LESS than 30 days, national oil corporation Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and its foreign partners have seen two of their
exploratory exercises struck hydrocarbon reservoirs, spewing black oil of undetermined amount.
Early last month, the discovery was at a concession block in Sudan.
The latest was closer at home.
Petronas and its partners made the oil and gas discovery off Malaysian waters two weeks ago.
The Cendor-1 well is located in Block PM304, about 155km offshore Peninsular Malaysia.
The discovery team drilled through 63m of water before striking hydrocarbons at multiple levels.
Amerada Hess (Malaysia) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hess Corp of the US, operates Block PM304 with an interest of 65.5 per
cent (subject to farm-down negotiations of a 25 per cent interest to a third party).
The other partners in the block are Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (30 per cent) and Petroleum Investment and Development Co, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Petrovietnam (4.5 per cent).
Amerada Hess said on its website that preliminary evaluation of the well results indicated a potential commercial oil accumulation, but
that further appraisal was required to confirm its viability.
Amerada Hess's international business managing director Howard Paver was quoted as saying that the company was delighted with the
early success in Malaysia.
"It represents our first operated exploration discovery in the region and is an exciting and important step forward in the development of
our business in South-East Asia.
"We will now focus on establishing the commercial viability of the discovery which lies close to existing infrastructure," he said.
The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 1.
79km and tested at a maximum recorded rate of 2,840 barrels of oil per day (bpd) of 42 degree API crude with a gas oil ratio of 250
scf/stb from a single zone.
In addition to this test, one other selected zone flowed gas at a stabilised rate in excess of 5 million cu ft of natural gas per day.
However, Petronas is not celebrating the discovery as yet.
An official with the national oil corporation, when contacted by Business Times, said there are still studies to be conducted on the
discovery to ascertain the commercial viability of the oil well.
"Normally, it would take time for us to ascertain whether the oil well is commercially viable," the official said.
This is the second discovery by Petronas and its partners in less than a month.
On March 15 Lundin Oil AB of Sweden, which is one of Petronas' partners in a consortium in Sudan, announced the discovery of oil at a
new concession site, designated Block 5A onshore Sudan, that flowed at more than 4,000bpd.
Besides Lundin Oil, Petronas' partners in the consortium are OMV (Sudan) Exploration GmbH of Austria and Sudan's own Sudapet Ltd.
The consortium will conduct seismic surveys and drill other wells before deciding whether to develop the oilfield, the reserves of which
have yet to be determined.
Lundin said the Thar Jath discovery well was drilled to a depth of 1,820m and encountered 63m of net pay over two sandstone
reservoirs, the Bentiu and the Aradeiba.
According to the company, the well flowed at a cumulative rate of 4,260bpd from three drill stem tests in both zones.
The company said Thar Jath has the prospect of matching the Heglig, Unity and other prolific oilfields operated by Greater Nile
Petroleum Operating Co, a consortium that includes Petronas, Talisman, China National Petroleum Corp and Sudapet.
Production from these fields currently exceed 200,000bpd.
The Sudanese Government estimates reserves in the Heglig and Unity fields at between 650 million and 800 million barrels.
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