PETRONAS wishes to announce the successful drilling of Cendor Graben-2 appraisal well within Block PM304 offshore Peninsula Malaysia.

The well was drilled to a depth of over 1,000 metres and confirmed the presence of oil and some gas-bearing reservoirs. Drilling was undertaken by Petrofac (Malaysia PM304) Ltd, the operator for Block PM304, together with joint-venture partners PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company and PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation Ltd.

The Cendor field was first discovered by Amerada Hess in 2001. However, the discovery was initially regarded as marginal with estimated recoverable resources of 12 million barrels (MMstb) of oil and was therefore deemed too risky and uneconomical for development. In May 2004, Petrofac acquired Amerada Hess’ interest and assumed operatorship of Block PM304.

Driven by PETRONAS’ strategy to grow resources, production and value, aggressive appraisal and development campaign was undertaken which led to the monetisation of this once marginal field. The efforts undertaken successfully transformed Cendor from a field deemed marginal to one of the biggest oilfields in Malaysia.

Cendor was developed using leased Mobile Operating Production Unit (MOPU) and first oil was achieved in September 2006. This was the first application of MOPU in Malaysia and was considered a novel development solution then.

Since first oil production, the Cendor field has performed above expectation, which helped spur further activities within the field and the surrounding areas of Block PM304. This has culminated in Cendor Phase 2 development and other new developments in PM304 which increased estimated recoverable resource to over 200 MMstb, a growth of more than 16 times from when it was discovered.

These other developments in PM304, through fast-tracked efforts in the last two years, are expected to commence production in stages throughout 2013 which will propel production to approximately 30,000 barrels per day by end of the year.

Resource growths are also seen in other oil and gas fields in Malaysia, such as the fields in the Berantai RSC and Balai RSC. The Berantai field, which commenced production in 2012, achieved an increase in estimated recoverable gas resources by 15% compared to 2011, as a result of development efforts. The pre-development work of Balai Cluster has also given early indication of increase in resources estimates. As project owner, PETRONAS will receive 100% entitlement to the production from the Berantai and Balai RSCs

As the custodian of Malaysia’s petroleum resources, PETRONAS will continue to drive resource growth and add value to these resources. The success cases of Cendor, Berantai and Balai Cluster, amongst many others, are fruits of these joint collaborative efforts.