Page 8 - AsianOil Week 25 2021
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AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil
Petronas introduced RSCs in early 2011 in order SK334, meanwhile, was to be offered as a single
to promote marginal field development. exploration contract.
Block SK433 is located within a proven petro- With final terms still to be reached it remains
leum system containing the Adong Kecil West unclear what acreage Petra Energy and Uzma’s
discovery, which was unearthed by Japan’s JX contract will cover.
Nippon in 2012. Block SK433’s award is a major step forward in
Petros announced last year that it planned the Sarawak government’s journey to exert greater
to hold an auction for Blocks SK433 and SK334 control over the state’s upstream resources. The
before the end of March 2021. The state compa- Kuching government has long argued that the state
ny’s executive vice-president of upstream, James has not received a large enough share of the profits
Foo, said in December 2020 that the company generated from local oil and gas projects. Sarawak’s
would split SK433 into two development con- negotiations with the central government and Pet-
tracts and one exploration licence. The devel- ronas have led to Petros taking control of onshore
opment contracts were to cover the Adong Kecil development while also seeking greater involve-
West and Engkabang West marginal discoveries. ment in offshore projects.
EAST ASIA
CNPC reports major Xinjiang oil, gas find
PROJECTS & STATE-OWNED China National Petro-
COMPANIES leum Corp. (CNPC) has discovered a new oil
and gas field in the Tarim Basin in the remote
north-western region of Xinjiang.
The country’s largest oil and gas producer
was quoted by state-run daily Global Times on
June 18 as saying that the field holds 1bn tonnes
(7.33bn barrels) of oil equivalent.
CNPC’s discovery well was drilled to a depth The Fuman discovery comes after CNPC
of 8,470 metres in the 10,000-square km Fuman subsidiary PetroChina reportedly made a major
oilfield. While Fuman is Tarim’s main oil pro- natural gas discovery in the Tarim Basin in
ducing acreage, the field is understood to be one December 2020.
of the most challenging to explore owing to the The Hu-1 exploration well produced 610,000
fact that its major oil producing zone lies about cubic metres per day of gas from estimated
8,000 metres below the surface. reserves in excess of 100bn cubic metres, the offi-
CNPC has reportedly overcome these chal- cial Xinhua news agency reported at the time.
lenges, with Global Times noting that the com- Oil and gas were encountered around 7,400
pany has raised the success rate of its exploration metres below the surface.
wells in the area from 75% to more than 95%. CNPC has been diverting a greater share of its
“In Fuman oilfield, we have successively upstream investment to Xinjiang in recent years
drilled 56 100-tonne wells and found a new as it seeks to open up new oil and gas provinces
oil reserve area of 1bn tonnes. This has been to replace mature and declining oilfields in the
the largest discovery of oil exploration in the country’s east. The major had pledge to invest
Tarim Basin in the recent decade,” the daily CNY150bn ($23.2bn) between 2018 and 2020 to
quoted the head of CNPC’s local branch, Yang boost its oil and gas production in the region to
Xuewen, as saying. 1mn barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 24•June•2021
