Interest heats up Southeast Asia discovery, production

You are here: Homepage > Search

Interest heats up Southeast Asia discovery, production

Cameron, Hazel / Young, Thomas

Exploration and appraisal drilling in Southeast Asia has continued at high levels through 2006 as oil companies, flush with cash, seek to replace reserves. The high level of license awards in 2005 sustained drilling activity through 2006, and this trend is expected to continue if operators can secure access to drilling rigs. A number of significant discoveries were made during 2005 to 2006, with Indonesia and Malaysia accounting for more than half of them. About 30 discoveries were made this year, adding potential reserves of 300 million bbl of oil and 10 tcf of gas. Husky Oil China Ltd's deepwater gas discovery off China was the highlight of the year to date, encouraging further licensing and improving industry perceptions of the deepwater areas. South Korea's Daewoo also discovered additional volumes of gas near Shwe field in Myanmar, for which cumulative reserves of 8.6 tcf was certified in 2006. In addition to exploration success, at least 170 new field developments are expected to come on stream in Southeast Asia by 2012. They will generate about 950,000 b/d of new liquids production and more than 8 bcfd of incremental sales gas. Key development include the Cepu Block on Java, the Kikeh and Gumusut oil fields off Sabah, supplies to the Tangguh LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant in Irian Jaya, and Puguang gas fields in China. These five projects together should contribute 390,000 b/d and 2.1 bcfd of new production by yearend 2011. The countries and sectors included in this review are Brunei, Cambodia, offshore China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Malaysia-Thailand JDA (Joint Development Area), Myanmar, the Phillipines, Thailand, and Vietnam.