Petronas Carigali makes new oil discovery offshore Sabah

PETALING JAYA: Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, the exploration and production arm of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), has discovered oil 100km off the northwest coast of Kota Kinabalu.

Petronas said in a statement that the significant oil discovery was made via theWakid-1 well within Block 2G-2J where three production tests were conducted in three different reservoirs which flowed oil at a combined maximum rate of 8,200 barrels per day.

“The well was spudded on May 30 this year, and was completed on July 4. It reached a total vertical depth of 3,330 metres and confirmed the presence of significant oil and some gasbearing reservoirs,” Petronas said.

Wakid-1 was the second well drilled by Petronas Carigali in Block 2G-2J since the award of its production sharing contract (PSC) in October last year. The block’s first well Tambuku-1 was drilled early this year, but yielded only minor gas discovery. Petronas Carigali is the sole equity holder of the PSC for the block.

“Current preliminary estimation of the hydrocarbon-in-place from this discovery is 227 million barrels of oil equivalent, with expected upside potential,” it said.

The company added that there were plans to further appraise the discovery in the near future.

The 2011/2012 Economic Report released in early October estimates the country’s crude oil production to fall 6% to 600,000 barrels per day before picking up next year.

This is following the completion of the Reservoir Management Plan as well as the resumption of production in several oil fields in Sabah.

According to the report, as at Jan 1, there were an estimated 5.86 billion barrels of crude oil reserves with an expected lifespan of 25 years.

Meanwhile, gas reserves stood at 88.9 trillion standard cu ft, sufficient to last 39 years, it said.