Petronas, Brunei signs agreement to boost O&G industry

0

KUCHING: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has announced that a number of agreements have been signed with Brunei’s petroleum authorities towards deepening mutually beneficial cooperation in the oil and gas industry between the two parties.

Petronas, in a statement, said the agreements reached with the Brunei petroleum authorities was a positive step forward in strengthening its presence in Brunei and deepening its relationship with its Brunei counterpart for mutual future growth in Brunei, Malaysia and elsewhere.

The agreements inked on December 8, 2013 was in conjunction with the 17th Annual Malaysia-Brunei Leaders’ Consultation held in Bandar Seri Begawan. The agreement include the following: a Head of Agreement (HOA) towards formalising a unitisation arrangement for Malaysia’s Kinabalu West NAG field and Brunei’s Maharajalela North Panel field, and a HOA towards a provisional arrangement for joint development of Malaysia’s Gumusut/Kakap field and Brunei’s Geronggong/Jagus-East field.

The HOA to formalise the unitisation arrangement for the Kinabalu West NAG field and Maharajalela North Panel field was signed between Petronas and the National Unitisation Secretariat of Brunei Darussalam and it is set to pave way for the two parties to resolve a number of issues relating to the unitisation and future development of these straddling fields.

Petronas and the National Unitisation Secretariat of Brunei Darussalam also signed another HOA to establish joint development parametres for the Gumusut/Kakap and Geronggong/Jagus-East fields based on a provisional production and cost sharing arrangement until a further agreement is reached on the status of the fields.

In addition, PetroleumBRUNEI, the national oil company of Brunei, has awarded Petronas Carigali Brunei and Shell Deepwater Borneo the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) for Blocks N and Q, which are located in the eastern shallow water areas offshore Brunei.

The two partners have equal 50:50 equity interests in the two blocks, where Petronas Carigali Brunei is the operator of Block N while Shell Deepwater Brunei operates Block Q.

Petronas and its Canadian subsidiaries Progress Energy Canada Ltd and Pacific NorthWest liquiefiend natural gas (LNG) Ltd have also signed an agreement with PetroleumBRUNEI for the latter to acquire a three per cent equity in Progress Energy Canada’s natural gas assets and in the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG’s export facility.

As part of the proposed transaction, PetroleumBRUNEI has agreed to buy a three per cent share of the LNG facility’s production for a minimum of 20 years.

Meanwhile, a MOU was also signed by Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd, a unit of Petronas’ subsidiary MISC Bhd, with PB Services Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of PetroleumBRUNEI, to explore the possibility of setting up a 30:70 joint venture to provide engineering and fabrication services.