Reuters: Shell makes oil find off Malaysia: "We are delighted to announce this highly significant discovery, our second offshore Sabah oil discovery within a year," Shell Malaysia Chairman Jon Chadwick said in the statement on Wednesday. (ShellNews.net)
Wed 22 September, 2004
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Shell has made another major oil find in deep waters off Malaysia's eastern Sabah state in a joint exploration with state oil firm Petronas and U.S. oil firm ConocoPhillips.
Shell SHEL.L gave no output estimates or reserves in a statement it released on the discovery at the Malikai-1 exploration well, located in Deepwater Block G, northwest of Sabah.
It said initial indications of crude characteristics at Malikai showed oil which was of high quality.
"We are delighted to announce this highly significant discovery, our second offshore Sabah oil discovery within a year," Shell Malaysia Chairman Jon Chadwick said in the statement on Wednesday.
Shell, the operator of Block G, said Malikai-1 was drilled in a water depth of 565 metres, adding that the discovery was made about 110 km from the Gumusut field in Block J, where an oil find by the joint venture was announced in March.
Shell Malaysia and ConocoPhillips hold equal 40 percent stakes in the Malikai field, while Petronas Carigali, the exploration arm of Petronas, owns 20 percent.
U.S. energy firm Murphy Oil Corp found the first deepwater oil in Malaysia in 2002 in Sabah's Block K -- a 4-million-acre area with reserves estimated at 400 million to 700 million barrels.
Malaysia is Southeast Asia's second-biggest crude producer, after Indonesia, with an average output of 600,000 barrels per day, as estimated by its national oil company Petronas.
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