Upstream, 27 June 2008 news 11

Petronas
Big four players pay day in
Pakistan
in Sabah pursuit MALAYSIA’S national
upstream company Petronas
Carigali has made a significant
gas condensate discovery
onshore Pakistan and is
Contractors are already planning its develop-
ment, writes Amanda
in FEED hunt on Battersby.
The Saqib 1A wildcat tested
Kebabangan off at 25 million cubic feet per day
of gas and 60 barrels per day of
Malaysian state condensate.
The probe is located in the
RUSSELL SEARANCKE Mubarak exploration block in
Wellington Sindh province.
Petronas Carigali is already
producing from the Rehmat
FOUR large project management gas field, which it discovered
contractors are vying for the in 2001 on the block. Rehmat
front-end engineering and design was brought on stream three
contract on Malaysia’s Kebaban- years ago and was targeting
gan Cluster deep-water gas plateau output of 70 MMcfd of
project off Sabah. gas and 80 bpd of condensate.
Sources said proposals for this Gas currently produced on
landmark job have been submit- Mubarak is sold to Sui North-
ted by US giant KBR, Technip of ern Gas Pipeline while the con-
France, Australian player Worley- densate is supplied to the
Parsons and Malaysia’s own National Refinery in Karachi.
MMC Oil & Gas. Partners in Mubarak (Block
The winner is expected to pro- 2769-4) are operator Petronas
ceed with a conceptual design Carigali on 57%, Eni with 38%
study and follow that up with a and Pakistan Government
FEED exercise. Fight to the finish: cyclists compete in the Eco Challenge race on Sabah. The four contenders for the Holdings on 5%.
Award is expected in four Kebabangan FEED off the Malaysian state include big-hitters Technip and WorleyParsons Photo: REUTERS
weeks, although there could be
slight delays because the three
heavy-hitting owners of the Keba-
tion sharing contract, the joint
operating company Kebabangan
potential to create “a legacy asset
in Malaysia”.
gas will be transported from the
SOGT terminal via a 500-kilo-
Debut in Oz
bangan project must take the Petroleum Operating Company is “We approved the Gumusut metre pipeline to the Petronas JAPAN Energy, a subsidiary of
award process through Malaysia owned by Petronas (40%), Shell project late last year, we picked LNG Complex in Bintulu, Nippon Mining Holdings, has
national oil company Petronas’ (30%) and ConocoPhillips (30%). up Kebabangan — and between Sarawak. acquired its first Australian
internal systems, said sources. The US supermajor said those two projects and our exist- The SOGT project is expected offshore exploration block.
A large gas processing facility recently that the gas and conden- ing acreage, we’ll have significant to be operational in 2010, and will Block WA-412-P is a 730-
is likely to anchor the Kebaban- sate project is due on stream in production in Malaysia by the have a capacity to handle up to square-kilometre area in the
gan project, said sources, with 2013, and peak gross production middle of next decade.” 300,000 barrels of oil and 1 billion Carnarvon basin off Western
wellhead platforms and a sizeable is expected to be 145,000 barrels The Kebabangan Cluster is a cubic feet of gas per day. Australia.
subsea component. of oil equivalent per day. major component in Petronas’ In addition to the Kebabangan Japan Energy’s work com-
The gas fields in the Cluster — John Lowe, ConocoPhillips’ SOGT project, which will see the Cluster, it will receive oil and gas mitments in the first three
Kebabangan, Kamunsu East, executive vice president for integrated development of oil and from the Shell-led Gumusut/- years include seismic acquisi-
Kamunsu East Upthrown and exploration and production, said gas fields off Sabah. Oil produc- Kakap project, plus Kinabalu tion and the drilling of two
Kamunsu East Upthrown recently the company has the tion will be exported, while the Deep and East, and Malikai. exploration wells.
Canyon — are located about 130
kilometres off Sabah in water
depths of about 350 metres.
The natural gas produced from
the Cluster fields is expected to be
sent via subsea pipelines to the
Sabah Oil & Gas Terminal
(SOGT), which is being built.
At this stage, the FEED con-
tract is understood to be anyone’s
race, said sources. Even MMC,
whose overall track record is infe-
rior to its three big overseas
rivals, is in with a chance given its
close ties to Petronas.
In recent months, MMC has
picked up valuable engineering
contracts for two substantial
Petronas field developments in
Malaysia — the D1 cluster project
off Sarawak and St Joseph re-
development off Sabah.
MMC also has a joint venture
company in Malaysia with Amec,
the UK engineering giant.
The MMC-Amec company was
set up last August with the spe-
cific goal of providing “compre-
hensive engineering solutions for
large-scale integrated deep-water
facilities and marginal field devel-
opment in addition to engineer-
ing and project management ser-
vices within the upstream and
downstream hydrocarbon sec-
tors”, said MMC at the time.
The pair notched up success in
February this year, winning a two-
year detailed engineering design
contract for Shell’s Malampaya
project off the Philippines.
Under the terms of the produc-