Page 7 - AsianOil Week 09 2021

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development of the adjacent Service Contract plants out there in Batangas,” Pangilinan said.
(SC) 72, which spans 8,800 square km and con- “Independent of whether we are successful in
tains the Sampaguita gas discovery. investing in Malampaya, we will pursue SC72
Philex Mining is a stakeholder in PXP Energy, because SC72 needs Malampaya.”
which owns 77.66% of UK-listed Forum Energy, Shell announced plans in September
which holds a 70% stake in SC 72. 2020 to exit the field, after US super-major
“If we are fortunate to get SC72 going, we Chevron sold its 45% stake in the project to
would need the facilities of Malampaya to pro- Udenna in March 2020. State-owned PNOC
cess the raw gas that would be produced by Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) owns the
SC72, so regardless of whether we own it or remaining 10%.
not, we will have to pipe the gas to Malam- Pangilinan said in October 2020 that his
paya for processing and then of course [via] group had entered into talks with JP Morgan,
Malampaya’s existing pipeline over to Batan- which is acting as Shell’s adviser, over the poten-
gas so that it can be piped to the existing gas tial acquisition.™

Petronas launches exploration bid round

FINANCE & STATE-OWNED Petronas has launched a new
INVESTMENT bid round for 13 exploration blocks offshore
Malaysia, including nine shallow-water acreages
and four deepwater permits.
The company said on March 1 that the Malay-
sia Bid Round (MBR) 2021, which was launched
via a virtual live stream event on February 26,
had attracted more than 250 potential and exist-
ing investors.
Three of the blocks – PM340, PM327 and
PM342 – are located in the Malay Basin, another
four – SB409, SB412, 2W and X – are in the
Sabah Basin, while the remaining six – ND3A,
SK4E, SK328, SK427, SK439 and SK440 – are
located in the Sarawak Basin.
Petronas said blocks PM342, SK4E, SK328
and SB409 already contained six discovered
fields, which should help accelerate the mone- transferable minimum work commitments
tisation of the fields. The ND3A, 4E, 2W and X between two adjacent PSCs and a phased explo-
blocks, meanwhile, are the round’s deepwater ration period.
prospects. Petronas said it would host a virtual data
The major introduced three new produc- room that would be accessible until August 6 and
tion-sharing contract (PSC) terms this year – allow potential investors to conduct data room
enhanced profitability (EPT), small field assets reviews. Any bids will be evaluated between
(SFA) and late life assets (LLA) terms. August and September, and Petronas intends to
EPT, which have been designed around award the PSCs to successful bidders before the
industry feedback, will apply to the shallow-wa- end of the year.
ter blocks on offer. The SFA and LLA PSC terms Petronas’ senior vice-president of Malaysia
were also shaped by market feedback and aim to Petroleum Management (MPM), Mohamed
provide opportunities for smaller developers to Firouz Asnan, said: “While exploration and pro-
extract greater value from potential investments. duction opportunities may appear everywhere
Whilst MBR 2021 focused on exploration around the world, I believe you will find ‘advan-
opportunities, Petronas said it would be making taged barrels’ here in Malaysia in diverse forms
late life assets and undeveloped smaller discov- and when you seize the right opportunities that
ered fields available in the second half of this complement your portfolio, you will not only
year. balance but also strengthen your portfolio.”
The state major noted that it had worked to Also on offer are study arrangements for
make the bid round more attractive by includ- three large areas, with one located in the south
ing several non-fiscal incentives. These included of the Malay Basin and the other two lying in the
larger block sizes, flexible bidding options, deep waters off Sabah’s north-east.™

Week 09 04•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7