More offshore oil & gas acreage for Jadestone in Malaysian waters

AIM-listed and Singapore-headquartered oil and gas player Jadestone Energy has inked a small field asset (SFA) cluster production sharing contract (PSC) offshore Peninsular Malaysia with Malaysia Petroleum Management, an affiliate of the state-owned energy giant Petronas.

As disclosed, the 100% participating interest, awarded as part of the Malaysia bid round plus (MBR+), is effective as of July 1, 2024. This cluster is governed by the small field asset PSC terms, designed to incentivize investment into smaller accumulations of hydrocarbons in the country. A bank guarantee of $0.5 million in favor of Petronas was secured to undertake the minimum work commitment for the PSC’s initial phase.

The SFA cluster PSC is located in shallow waters offshore Peninsular Malaysia, surrounded by the PM428 PSC. The license for the latter was awarded to Jadestone and Petronas Carigali in January as part of the Malaysia Bid Round 2023. 

Paul Blakeley, Jadestone’s President and CEO, noted: “The SFA Cluster PSC award builds on the success of the 2023 PM323 infill drilling programme, enhancing the scale and value of our Malaysian platform. I would like to thank PETRONAS for this award and their continued confidence in Jadestone, and I look forward to developing our relationship with them further in order to realise the potential of the SFA Cluster and deliver significant benefits for all of our Malaysian stakeholders.”

The SFA cluster PSC includes the Penara, Puteri, Padang, and North Lukut fields, and PNLP assets, which is the collective name for the PM318 and the Abu, Abu Kecil, Bubu, North Lukut, and Penara (AAKBNLP) PSCs. Jadestone acquired a 50% non-operated interest in PNLP assets as part of its entry into Malaysia in 2021. They were renamed the Puteri cluster during the MBR+ process in October 2023.

The Singaporean player says SFA cluster PSC fields were producing at a gross rate of 5,000 boe/d before production was stopped in 2022 following the class suspension of the floating storage, production, and offloading (FPSO) unit servicing the fields at the time. The firm is currently overseeing operations and maintenance in shut-in mode. 

According to Jadestone, the SFA cluster PSC contains an estimated 15 mmbbls of gross 2C contingent resources. Thanks to the 2023 infill drilling campaign on the PM323 license using Velesto’s jack-up drilling rig, the firm is optimistic about future infill drilling across the existing SFA cluster fields, which could result in potential prospects and leads on the surrounding PM428 PSC. The firm intends to continue its technical assessment of the SFA cluster before submitting a field development and abandonment plan to Petronas.

Apart from Malaysia, Jadestone is preparing for drilling activities in the Timor Sea off the coast of Australia. The firm submitted an environment plan for drilling operations as part of which it plans to re-enter and sidetrack the existing Skua-11 well in the Skua field.