Petronas hits pay offshore Gabon

Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas has made an oil and gas discovery at its Boudji-1 exploration well in Block F14 (Likuale), located in South Gabon.

Petronas’ subsidiary, PC Gabon Upstream S.A. (PCGUSA), is the operator for Block F14 (Likuale), with Australia’s Woodside holding a 30 per cent participating interest.

According to Woodside, the Boudji-1 ultra-deepwater exploration well was spudded in late October.

Drilled in water depths of 2,800 meters, the well encountered 90 meters of gross high quality hydrocarbon-bearing pre-salt sands, Petronas informed on Monday.

Petronas Executive Vice President & Upstream CEO, Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib, said: “The discovery in Gabon is an encouraging development for Petronas, as we continue to pursue growth activities beyond Malaysia, in line with the strategy to expand our core oil and gas business by growing our resource base.”

“Aside from boosting Gabon’s oil and gas industry, this discovery will also spur further growth activities in the region, and complements our achievements towards building a significant deepwater portfolio globally,” he added.

Petronas, together with the Ministry of Petroleum & Hydrocarbons, Gabon, will conduct an assessment to further determine the commerciality of the resource volume.

To-date, Petronas’ deepwater portfolio includes partnerships in the Gumusut-Kakap, Malikai and Kikeh deepwater fields located offshore Sabah. Additionally, there are two new upcoming deepwater development projects in the portfolio – the Limbayong field in Sabah and the Kelidang Cluster in Brunei.