Off the coasts of Sarawak, Sabah, and Peninsular Malaysia, a total of nine oil and gas discoveries were made. Petronas Carigali made the greatest oil discovery at the Nahara-1 well in Block SK306 in the Balingian region of Sarawak.
According to Petronas, discoveries were also made in the provinces of Central Luconia, Western Luconia, and Baram in Sarawak, which are home to some of Malaysia’s most productive basins and many of the nation’s gas fields.
Shell made finds in the Central Luconia region at the Inai-1 and Temu-1 wells in the MLNG Block, while Mubadala Energy discovered more gas at the Cengkih-1 well in Block SK320. ConocoPhillips completed three exploration wells in Block WL4-00 in the developing province of Western Luconia, finding gas at the Gagau-1 well and confirming the presence of oil and gas stockpiles in nearby fault blocks at the Salam-3 and Benum-2 wells. PTTEP discovered additional gas in Block SK410B in the developed Baram province, where the enormous Lang Lebah was previously discovered in 2019.
TotalEnergies discovered oil and gas in ultra-deepwater Sabah at the Tepat-2 well in Block N of the developing Sabah Trough province, demonstrating the scope of the earlier Tepat-1 oil and gas discovery from 2018.
Hess discovered a fresh gas deposit off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia at the Bergading Deep-4 well in Block PM302 of the North Malay Basin.
2022 has been a wonderful year for exploration in Malaysia, stated Mohamed Firouz Asnan from Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM), a subsidiary of Petronas. He said he was  quite happy with the enhanced exploration activities, which have seen 16 wells completed and two more underway, more than doubling the number from 2021. Their 60% success rate attests to the Malaysian basins’ abundance. Given their proximity to the enormous network of existing infrastructure, the majority of finds can be swiftly and cheaply monetized. This extensive multi-client dataset encompassing emerging and new areas will continue to be the key to speeding up the time to drilling, continued Azmir Zamri, Senior General Manager, Resource Exploration MPM at PETRONAS. Their PACs are preparing to drill up to 30 exploration wells next year thanks to MPM’s long-term rig sequencing plan. These are part of attempts to keep building up the nation’s hydrocarbon resource base in order to fulfil the rising energy demand, both locally and internationally.
In addition to the exploration results, Petronas stated that there was a rise in interest in the Malaysia Bid Round (MBR) 2022, where investors enthusiastically reacted to the need for higher exploration investment levels. Following the introduction of MBR 2023, the production sharing contract (PSC) agreements for the chosen MBR 2022 bids are scheduled for February of the following year.
On January 27, 2022, the MBR 2022 was announced. The bidding round included 14 exploration zones, six clusters of discovered resource opportunities (DRO), and one cluster of late-life assets (LLA).
Through MPM, Petronas grants oil permits, oversees oil contracts, and provides stewardship for upstream oil operations in Malaysia.