Petronas Launches Malaysia Bid Round 2022

Malaysia's Petronas has put on offer 14 exploration blocks, six clusters of Discovered Resource Opportunities, and one cluster of Late-Life Assets in its Malaysia Bid Round 2022.

The launch had over 1,300 potential and existing investors in attendance from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific.

The 14 exploration blocks offered during the round are all located within the Malay, Sabah, and Sarawak basins. The presence of oil and gas discoveries within these basins will accelerate monetization activities.

Both the six DRO clusters and the single LLA cluster offer the opportunity of utilizing existing facilities. The DRO clusters include Meranti, Ubah, Baram Jr., A, C, and D, which are located mostly in shallow water and are nearby the existing production infrastructure. The LLA including the Abu Cluster contains three fields that offer the opportunity for new operators to sweat the remaining oil in place using the existing infrastructure.

“Through our basin study work, we believe there are many more prospects to be identified in the Malaysia basins, with the estimated remaining potential of about 21 billion barrels of oil equivalent. We welcome players with unique capabilities to unlock the potential in both old and new places,” Petronas SVP of Malaysia Petroleum Management, Mohamed Firouz Asnan said.

In addition to the assets, Petronas is providing technical study arrangements in areas in southern Malay Basin and northwest Sabah Basin, enabling investors to better understand the potential of the prospects before making any proposals.

While the attractive Enhanced Profitability Terms (EPT) Production Sharing Contract (PSC) will continue to be applied to shallow water blocks, the newly introduced Small Field Asset (SFA) and LLA PSC terms will accompany the DRO and LLA on offer, respectively, Petronas noted in its statement following the launch. Meanwhile, the three deepwater opportunities included in the MBR 2022 will benefit from the Deepwater Revenue Over Cost (R/C) PSC terms.  

Investors will also have an option of merging adjacent blocks under a single PSC, transferable minimum work commitments between two adjacent PSCs, as well a phased exploration period as part of the non-fiscal enhancements introduced earlier.

In addition, the company launched the Petronas myPROdata platform, providing insights to investors into the full potential of Malaysia’s exploration and production resources. Until June 30, 2022, potential investors also have access to a virtual data room enabling them to review data during the bid round period.

To contact the author, email andreson.n.paul@gmail.com