PETRONAS Offers 14 Exploration Blocks, Discovered Resource Opportunities & Late Life Assets In Malaysia Bid Round 2022

PETRONAS is offering 14 exploration blocks, six clusters of Discovered Resource Opportunities (DRO) and one cluster of Late Life Assets (LLA) in its Malaysia Bid Round 2022 (MBR 2022) launched today.

The launch, themed “Your Advantaged Energy is Here”, was attended physically by more than 90 potential investors as well as by over 1,300 potential and existing investors streaming “live” from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

The 14 exploration blocks on offer are located 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.

Malaysia Bid Round 2022 is promoting 14 exploration blocks, six clusters of Discovered Resource Opportunities (DRO), one cluster of Late Life Assets (LLA) field and technical study arrangements for two exploration areas.

The six DRO 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 LLA, 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 Senior Vice President of Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM), Mohamed Firouz Asnan said, “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 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 LLA PSC terms will accompany the DRO and LLA on offer, respectively. Meanwhile, the three deepwater 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.

The platform PETRONAS myPROdata was also launched at the event, 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.

Following the MBR 2022 launch, PETRONAS is hosting a virtual data room which will be accessible from today until 30 June 2022, allowing potential investors to conduct data review anywhere and anytime during the bid round period.

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.