The Malaysian state-owned oil and gas company Petronas has signed Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for two Discovered Resource Opportunities (DRO) clusters, situated off the coast of peninsular Malaysia and with an estimated recovery of 4.26 tcf (121 bcm) of natural gas.
The BIGST Cluster (4 tcf or 113 bcm) was awarded to PETRONAS Carigali and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration, with a 50 % participating interest each. Meanwhile, the Tembakau Cluster (260 bcf or 7.4 bcm) was awarded to IPC Malaysia and IPC SEA Holding, with a 90% and 10% participating interest, respectively. The monetisation of these clusters is expected to significantly boost gas supply to the Peninsular Malaysia hub.
In January 2024, Petronas awarded PSCs for six exploration blocks and one DRO cluster marketed under the Malaysia Bid Round 2023 (MBR 2023). As of end-2022, Malaysia had proved crude oil reserves standing at 490 Mt and natural gas reserves standing at 2,056 bcm. Crude oil and NGL production reached 26 Mt and natural gas production stood at 76 bcm in 2022.