Page 11 - AsianOil Week 05 2022

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Malaysia launches 2022 licensing round

INVESTMENT MALAYSIA’S state-owned Petronas launched The six DRO clusters are Meranti, Ubah,
the country’s 2022 licensing round on January Baram Jr., A, C and D. They are mostly located
27. Under the Malaysia Bid Round (MBR) 2022, in shallow waters, close to existing production
14 exploration blocks, six clusters of discovered infrastructure. The LLA includes a cluster of
resource opportunities (DRO) and one cluster of three fields known as the Abu Cluster, and the
late life assets (LLA) are on offer. company said a new operator could tap the
Additionally, Petronas is offering technical remaining oil in place (OIP) using existing
study arrangements for two exploration areas facilities.
in the Malay and Sabah basins. The studies are Petronas noted that it had also introduced
designed to offer investors the opportunity to new production-sharing contract (PSC) terms
better understand the basins’ acreage potential for the DRO and LLA assets. Investors have
prior to submitting bid proposals. flexible bidding options such as merging two
“Through our basin study work, we believe adjacent blocks under one PSC, transferable
there are many more prospects to be identified in minimum work commitments between two
the Malaysia basins, with the estimated remain- adjacent PSCs and a phased exploration period
ing potential of about 21bn barrels of oil equiva- as part of non-fiscal enhancements introduced
lent [boe],” stated Petronas’ senior vice-president earlier, the company added.
of Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM), Data on the blocks on offer are available until
Mohamed Firouz Asnan. “We welcome players June 30 via a virtual data room.
with unique capabilities to unlock the potential The launch of MBR 2022 comes just over
in both old and new places.” a month after Petronas awarded six offshore
The 14 exploration blocks on offer are located blocks – out of 13 that had been on offer – to
in the Malay, Sabah and Sarawak basins. Petro- undisclosed firms under MBR 2021 in late
nas said most of these blocks contain existing December. The company said at the time that
oil and gas discoveries, which it expects to help PSCs for those blocks were due to be finalised by
accelerate monetisation activities. the first quarter of 2022.™

Woodside joins Myanmar exodus

POLICY AUSTRALIA’S Woodside announced on Janu- Woodside’s CEO, Meg O’Neill, said that while
ary 27 that it would withdraw from its operations her company had previously hoped to develop
in Myanmar. The company joins Chevron and the A-6 gas resources, it no longer saw a viable
TotalEnergies, both of which said the previous option for continuing its activities in Myanmar.
week that they would exit their operations in the “Given the ongoing situation in Myanmar we
country. (See AsianOil Week 04) can no longer contemplate Woodside’s participa-
The withdrawal of overseas oil and gas com- tion in the development of the A-6 gas resources,
panies from Myanmar is taking place as a result nor other future activities in-country,” O’Neill
of the deteriorating human rights situation in stated.
the country under the junta that took power in The withdrawal from blocks A-6 and AD-1
a coup last year. Woodside’s exit comes after the is expected to result in a non-cash expense
company said in February 2021 that it would of roughly $138mn in Woodside’s net profit
scale back its presence in Myanmar in the wake after tax for 2021. The company said this was
of the coup. in addition to a $71mn exploration and eval-
Woodside is the joint operator of the A-6 uation expense for Block AD-7, which it had
offshore block with a 40% interest. It also holds flagged up in its fourth-quarter report the pre-
stakes in exploration permits AD-1 and AD-8. vious week.
It relinquished exploration permits covering off- Separately, media reported in late January
shore blocks AD-2, AD-5 and A-4 in 2021 and is that Myanmar’s junta had laid landmines along
in the process of withdrawing from blocks AD-6, the routes of oil and gas pipelines in the country
AD-7 and A-7. The company said last week that that run to China in a bid to protect the infra-
it would now begin the process of formally exit- structure from attacks by armed opposition
ing blocks AD-1 and AD-8, the A-6 joint venture groups. The situation shows no sign of improv-
and the A-6 production-sharing contract (PSC) ing anytime soon, and this may spur more for-
with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). eign investors to exit the country.™

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