Malaysian national oil company Petronas has announced that the company and its Petroleum Arrangement Contractors recorded 19 exploration discoveries and 2 exploration-appraisal successes totalling over 1 Gboe of new oil and gas resources in Malaysia during 2023. More than half of the discoveries were made in the Sarawak Basin, primarily in two clusters within the Balingian and West Luconia geological provinces. In addition, three discoveries were made in the Northwest Sabah Basin revealing a working petroleum system that unravels new opportunities in the ultra-deepwater and deepwater areas; another drilling campaign is ongoing within the same proven basin in the shallow waters off the coast of Sabah (Eastern Malaysia). Finally, two discoveries were made in the Malay Basin.
This achievement was the result of an intensified exploration programme pursued in the last few years, with 25 wells drilled (the highest number of exploration wells drilled in a single year since 2015).
Malaysia's gas reserves are quite large (2,056 bcm end of 2022); they represent around 27 years of production. The oil reserves are more modest (490 Mt, i.e. 20 years of production).