Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), a Malaysian national oil company, has made two major gas discoveries at the Kuang North and Tukau Timur fields, offshore of Sarawak.
The total estimated gas-in-place from both discoveries is about 4.4 trillion standard cubic feet (tscf). Plans are afoot to begin works to estimate the range of recoverable resource volumes.
In October 2012, the company drilled both exploration wells – Kuang North-1 and Kuang North-2 – of the Kuang North field located in Block SK316.
Elaborating on the preliminary assessments of the first discovery, Petronas said that the second well was drilled to a total depth of 3,223m and penetrated 636m of gas column, indicating about 2.3tscf net hydrocarbon in place.
According to the company, the gas was found in the older carbonate section of the well, thus indicating a new exploration play-type associated with huge hydrocarbon potential in offshore Sarawak.
The second gas discovery was made at Tukau Timur Deep-1 well within the Tukau Timur field, which is located in a block jointly operated by Petronas and Sarawak Shell, each holding a 50% stake.
The well was drilled vertically to a total depth of 4,830m and discovered 12 gas bearing reservoirs with total net gas sand of 183m.
Preliminary assessments of this discovery indicated the total gas-in-place for the Tukau Timur field to be about 2.1 tscf, the company said.
The company said that the Tukau Timur Deep-1 well is the deepest vertical well it has drilled so far and claims that it is the first high pressure high temperature (HPHT) well to be drilled in Sarawak.
Petronas is a wholly-owned oil and gas company of the Government of Malaysia, which has fully integrated oil and gas operations in a broad spectrum of the oil and gas value-chain.
The company’s business activities include exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas in Malaysia and overseas.
Image: Petronas towers in Kualalumpur, Malaysia, where the state-owned company is headquartered. Photo courtesy of A.Aruninta.
