Partners to work on making one of Malaysia’s largest untapped prospects drill-ready in next 18 months

Longboat Energy, a Southeast Asia-focused E&P company, has published the results of the competent persons report (CPR) for a prospect within Block 2A off the coast of Sarawak, eastern Malaysia, confirming its giant scale.

ERC Equipoise was commissioned by Longboat to carry out a CPR on the main Kertang prospect located in Block 2A offshore Sarawak in eastern Malaysia. This move is in line with the E&P player’s decision to exit Norway and concentrate on building a full-cycle E&P business in Southeast Asia.

Under a contract awarded in 2022, Longboat has a 52.5% operated interest in a production sharing contract (PSC) for the block with partners Petronas and Petroleum Sarawak Exploration & Production (Petros) holding 40% and 7.5% interests, respectively.

The PSC is split into two terms. The first is a three-year term covering minimal work on subsurface studies, followed by a two-year term that requires drilling one firm well to a depth of over 3,000 meters. 

According to the E&P player, the CPR confirmed the giant scale of the Kertang prospect containing 9.1 TCF of unrisked mean prospective resources, combined with 146 million barrels (mmbbl) of natural gas liquids (NGLs) across its four target horizons. 

Longboat’s CEO, Nick Ingrassia, noted: “I am extremely pleased the results of the ERCE CPR confirms Longboat’s internal view of the world-class scale of the Kertang prospect. Based on the excellent subsurface work undertaken to date by the Longboat team, we believe that Kertang is one of the largest undrilled structures in Malaysia and look forward to working with our partners PETRONAS and Petros to progress the prospect towards drilling in the next 18 months.”

Kertang is described as a well-defined, large, four-way dip closed structural high with over 220 km2 of closure. Four target intervals have been evaluated, including primary targets Cycle I and Cycle II/III, and Oligo-Miocene reservoirs, and the secondary ones – shallower Cycle V/VII reservoirs. The prospect is covered by a high-quality, wide-beam 3D seismic shot by CGG in 2015.

The prospect is said to exhibit direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs) including an overlying gas cloud feature and amplitude brights at the Cycle V/VII level. Based on the results of Petronas’ 2019 seabed core sampling, Kertang is considered to be outside of the CO2 fairway. Furthermore, preliminary work carried out by Longboat indicates that a single exploration well can be used for testing all target horizons.

Block 2A covers around 12,000 km2 in water depths of 100–1,400 meters. The E&P firm claims several large companies have expressed their interest in Block 2A, which is why a farm-out process is planned in H2 2024 to find a suitable partner.

BintuluLNG, a 30-mtpa liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, said to be one of the world’s largest, is located onshore in Sarawak. The facility experienced a power loss on May 10 but was brought back online and resumed full operations nine days later.

Additionally, the site is set to become the location of a centralized hydrogen production hub, targeting commercial hydrogen production by 2027. The agreement for the development of the production hub dubbed the Sarawak H2 Hub was signed in February between Gentari and SEDC Energy (SEDCE).