8/7/2019 Big4 inSabah pursuit

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RUSSELL SEARANCKE

Wellington

FOUR large project managementcontractors are vying for thefront-end engineering and designcontract on Malaysias Kebaban-

gan Cluster deep-water gasproject off Sabah.

Sources said proposals for thislandmark job have been submit-ted by US giant KBR, Technip ofFrance, Australian player Worley-Parsons and Malaysias ownMMC Oil & Gas.

The winner is expected to pro-ceed with a conceptual designstudy and follow that up with aFEED exercise.

Award is expected in fourweeks, although there could beslight delays because the threeheavy-hitting owners of the Keba-bangan project must take theaward process through Malaysianational oil company Petronas

internal systems, said sources.A large gas processing facility

is likely to anchor the Kebaban-gan project, said sources, withwellhead platforms and a sizeablesubsea component.

The gas fields in the Cluster Kebabangan, Kamunsu East,Kamunsu East Upthrown andKamunsu East UpthrownCanyon are located about 130kilometres off Sabah in waterdepths of about 350 metres.

The natural gas produced fromthe Cluster fields is expected to besent via subsea pipelines to theSabah Oil & Gas Terminal(SOGT), which is being built.

At this stage, the FEED con-

tract is understood to be anyonesrace, said sources. Even MMC,whose overall track record is infe-rior to its three big overseasrivals, is in with a chance given itsclose ties to Petronas.

In recent months, MMC haspicked up valuable engineeringcontracts for two substantialPetronas field developments inMalaysia the D1 cluster projectoff Sarawak and St Joseph re-development off Sabah.

MMC also has a joint venturecompany in Malaysia with Amec,the UK engineering giant.

The MMC-Amec company wasset up last August with the spe-cific goal of providing compre-

hensive engineering solutions forlarge-scale integrated deep-waterfacilities and marginal field devel-opment in addition to engineer-ing and project management ser-vices within the upstream anddownstream hydrocarbon sec-tors, said MMC at the time.

The pair notched up success inFebruary this year, winning a two-year detailed engineering designcontract for Shells Malampayaproject off the Philippines.

Under the terms of the produc-

tion sharing contract, the jointoperating company KebabanganPetroleum Operating Company isowned by Petronas (40%), Shell(30%) and ConocoPhillips (30%).

The US supermajor saidrecently that the gas and conden-sate project is due on stream in2013, and peak gross productionis expected to be 145,000 barrelsof oil equivalent per day.

John Lowe, ConocoPhillipsexecutive vice president forexploration and production, saidrecently the company has the

potential to create a legacy assetin Malaysia.

We approved the Gumusutproject late last year, we pickedup Kebabangan and between

those two projects and our exist-ing acreage, well have significantproduction in Malaysia by themiddle of next decade.

The Kebabangan Cluster is amajor component in PetronasSOGT project, which will see theintegrated development of oil andgas fields off Sabah. Oil produc-tion will be exported, while the

gas will be transported from theSOGT terminal via a 500-kilo-metre pipeline to the PetronasLNG Complex in Bintulu,Sarawak.

The SOGT project is expectedto be operational in 2010, and willhave a capacity to handle up to300,000 barrels of oil and 1 billioncubic feet of gas per day.

In addition to the KebabanganCluster, it will receive oil and gasfrom the Shell-led Gumusut/-Kakap project, plus KinabaluDeep and East, and Malikai.

newsUpstream, 27 June 2008 11

MALAYSIAS nationalupstream company Petronas

Carigali has made a significantgas condensate discoveryonshore Pakistan and isalready planning its develop-ment, writes AmandaBattersby.

The Saqib 1A wildcat testedat 25 million cubic feet per dayof gas and 60 barrels per day ofcondensate.

The probe is located in theMubarak exploration block inSindh province.

Petronas Carigali is alreadyproducing from the Rehmatgas field, which it discoveredin 2001 on the block. Rehmatwas brought on stream threeyears ago and was targeting

plateau output of 70 MMcfd ofgas and 80 bpd of condensate.

Gas currently produced onMubarak is sold to Sui North-ern Gas Pipeline while the con-densate is supplied to theNational Refinery in Karachi.

Partners in Mubarak (Block2769-4) are operator PetronasCarigali on 57%, Eni with 38%and Pakistan GovernmentHoldings on 5%.

Petronaspay day inPakistan

Big four players

in Sabah pursuit

Fight to the finish: cyclists compete in the Eco Challenge race on Sabah. The four contenders for theKebabangan FEED off the Malaysian state include big-hitters Technip and WorleyParsons Photo: REUTERS

Contractors arein FEED hunt on

Kebabangan offMalaysian state

JAPAN Energy, a subsidiary ofNippon Mining Holdings, hasacquired its first Australian

offshore exploration block.Block WA-412-P is a 730-

square-kilometre area in theCarnarvon basin off WesternAustralia.

Japan Energys work com-mitments in the first threeyears include seismic acquisi-tion and the drilling of twoexploration wells.

Debut in Oz