New gas find for Petronas off Sarawak

Malaysia’s Petronas Carigali has made its third gas discovery in the waters of Balingian Province offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.

The discovery was made at the Hadrah-1 wildcat exploration well of Block SK411, located in the shallow waters of Balingian Province about 170 kilometres northwest off the coast of Sarawak.

As reported by Petronas on Friday, the Hadrah-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 1,850 metres in November 2021 and encountered gas within an approximately 200-metre thick sequence of high-quality sandstone and carbonate reservoirs.

Hadrah-1 is Petronas’ third gas discovery in this province in 2021, after Sirung-1 and Kulintang-1 in March and May respectively. In 2019, oil and gas were also discovered within the same play at the D18 field.

Petronas Carigali is the operator of the block, with 90 per cent participating interest in its Production Sharing Contract. The remaining 10 per cent is held by E&P Malaysia Venture.

Petronas Vice President of Exploration, Upstream, Emeliana Rice-Oxley, said: “The gas discovery in the Hadrah-1 wildcat exploration well by PCSB further proves the promising prospectivity in the underexplored Cycle I, II & III plays within the Balingian province.

“The excellent quality of reservoirs encountered augurs the remaining potential in the surrounding areas, with PCSB well positioned to pursue the untapped similar plays in Blocks SK411 and SK306. We look forward to delivering more natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, safely and reliably to the market,” she added.