Petronas' Sarawak Marks First Onshore Discovery in 24 Years 

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) State-backed Petronas has announced new oil and gas discoveries, the first in 24 years, made onshore Sarawak.

The company said in a statement that it has found oil and gas in the Adong Kecil West-1 well in the onshore block SK333. The field is located approximately 20 kms from the city of Miri Malaysia in northern Sarawak.

The well, drilled by JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration to a depth of 10,400 feet (3,170 meters), encountered approximately 1,145 feet (349 meters) of net hydrocarbon thickness. Two drill-stem tests achieved flow rates of 440 barrels of crude oil per day and 11.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

JX Nippon, the operator of SK333, is at present conducting technical assessments to determine the resource volume of the field.

Based on the drilling results, there are also indications that the deeper sections of in the onshore area could hold additional upside potential for hydrocarbon accumulation. Drilling operations are however more challenging for the deeper reservoirs and rigs with higher specifications will be required to test such intervals.

To-date, three discoveries have been found onshore Sarawak: the Miri, Asam Paya and Adong Kecil West fields.

"These discoveries prove that onshore Sarawak has the potential for more oil and gas accumulations where the Miri field, Malaysia's first oil field, was discovered way back in 1910," Petronas said in a statement.

The first discovery was in 1989 in the Assam Paya field in the same state.
Petronas is this year placing a renewed emphasis on maximizing domestic oil reserves, particularly in Sarawak, after years of international expansion.

The company had announced in November last year that it made two major offshore gas discoveries in Sarawak, which combined could hold over four trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.