Malaysia’s Petronas is seeking investors for 14 exploration blocks, six clusters of discovered resource opportunities and one cluster of late life assets in its Malaysia Bid Round 2022 (MBR 2022). Significantly, Petronas is making vast amounts of data available to potential investors.
“The round looks positive and there are huge areas on offer. The emphasis is on quick monetisation. The biggest change is the amount of data they are finally offering. Tons of it,” Chris Howells, principal of Asia-focused energy consultancy BEC Energy, based in Kuala Lumpur, told Energy Voice.
“They are providing access to loads of 3D data, access to some of the latest interpretation reports, as well as multi-client surveys,” added Howells.
The platform Petronas myPROdata was launched as part of the bid round last week to provide investors with insights into the full potential of Malaysia’s exploration and production resources. It comes with five different subscription plans, each with its own set of data access, and is accessible 24/7, Petronas said.
Following the MBR 2022 launch, Petronas is hosting a virtual data room which will be accessible until 30 June 2022, allowing potential investors to conduct data review anywhere and anytime during the bid round period.
“Through our basin study work, we believe there are many more prospects to be identified in the Malaysia basins, with the estimated remaining potential of about 21 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE). We welcome players with unique capabilities to unlock the potential in both old and new places,” Petronas senior vice president of Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM), Mohamed Firouz Asnan, said.
Howells said that “if they can get niche operators in it would be good. Expertise from the North Sea and other mature areas would be helpful.”
“They have also spent time listening and working out coordinated area plans, as well as promising access to infrastructure,” he added.
The 14 exploration blocks on offer are in prolific geological provinces within the Malay, Sabah, and Sarawak basins. Most of these blocks contain existing oil and/or gas discoveries that will accelerate monetisation activities, Petronas said.
The six discovered resource opportunity clusters featured in the MBR 2022 are Meranti, Ubah, Baram Jr., A, C, and D, mostly in shallow water and are nearby existing production infrastructure. In addition, the single late life assets package, which includes a cluster of three fields named the Abu Cluster, provides opportunity for the new operator to sweat the remaining oil in place using existing facilities.
Petronas is also offering technical study arrangements for two exploration areas in southern Malay Basin and northwest Sabah Basin. Through the study, investors will have an opportunity to better understand the potential of the acreages, prior to submitting a bid proposal.
While the attractive Enhanced Profitability Terms (EPT) Production Sharing Contract (PSC) will continue to be applied to shallow water blocks, the newly introduced Small Field Asset (SFA) and Late Life Asset (LLA) PSC terms will accompany the Discovered Resource Opportunities (DRO) and LLA on offer, respectively. Meanwhile, the three deep-water opportunities included in the MBR 2022 will benefit from the Deepwater Revenue Over Cost (R/C) PSC terms.
At the same time, investors will continue to enjoy flexible bidding options such as merging two adjacent blocks under one PSC, transferable minimum work commitments between two adjacent PSCs, as well as phased exploration period as part of the non-fiscal enhancements introduced earlier.
Apart from issuing and managing petroleum arrangements in Malaysia, Petronas, through MPM, is the country’s oil and gas industry shaper and investment enabler that steers upstream petroleum activities in Malaysia. MPM is the single contact point for investors’ entry into Malaysia’s oil and gas industry, a unique feature differentiating Petronas against its global peers.