Petronas signs PSCs for three field clusters offshore Peninsular Malaysia

Petronas has awarded production sharing contracts (PSCs) for three clusters of discovered resource opportunities offshore Peninsular Malaysia.

All were offered under the Malaysia Bid Round Plus (MBR+) Round I. They contain a total of 12 oil and gas discoveries in the proven Malay Basin and are all close to existing infrastructure.

Two of the awards are small field asset (SFA) cluster PSCs, designed to incentivize investment in smaller accumulations. One of these PSCs, comprising the Bubu, Bunga Tasbih and Enau fields, was assigned to Ping Petroleum and Duta Marine.

Another, covering the Puteri, Padang, Penara and North Lukut, went to Singapore-based Jadestone Energy.

Finally, Hibiscus Oil & Gas (65%) and Petronas Carigali (35%) will look to potentially develop the Bedong, Kenarong, Noring and Pertang, Kenarong, Noring and Bedong resources under Malaysia’s Improved Revenue Over Cost terms.

According to Hibiscus, the fields are in water depths of 65-75 m offshore the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and within tieback distance of the PM3 commercial arrangement area PSC, which is operated by HML. The PSC will run for 24 years.

Petronas expects to sign further MBR+ PSCs during the next few weeks. The scheme, introduced last October 2023, complements the annual Malaysia Bid Round licensing process.

Jadestone said its SFA cluster PSC, also in shallow waters, is surrounded by the PM428 PSC, in which the company was awarded a 60% operated interest earlier this year through the MBR 2023.

The company previously had a 50%, non-operated stake in all four fields under the PM318 PSC and the Abu, Abu Kecil, Bubu, North Lukut and Penara PSC. The fields were producing 5,000 boe/d gross in early 2022 prior to production shut-in.

The company estimates current 2C contingent resources at about 15 MMbbl. But there could significant upside from future infill drilling and from prospects and leads on the surrounding PM428 PSC. 

Jadestone plans to continue its technical assessment of the SFA cluster prior to submitting a field development and abandonment plan to Petronas.