AsianOil: Malaysia launches 2022 licensing round

Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas launched the country’s 2022 licensing round on January 27. Under the Malaysia Bid Round (MBR) 2022, 14 exploration blocks, six clusters of discovered resource opportunities (DRO) and one cluster of late-life assets (LLA) are on offer.
Additionally, Petronas is offering technical study arrangements for two exploration areas in the Malay and Sabah basins. The studies are designed to give investors the opportunity to better understand the basins’ acreage potential prior to submitting bid proposals.
“Through our basin study work, we believe there are many more prospects to be identified in the Malaysia basins, with the estimated remaining potential of about 21bn barrels of oil equivalent [boe],” stated Petronas’ senior vice-president of Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM), Mohamed Firouz Asnan. “We welcome players with unique capabilities to unlock the potential in both old and new places.”
The 14 exploration blocks on offer are located in the Malay, Sabah and Sarawak basins. Petronas said most of these blocks contain existing oil and gas discoveries, which it expects to help accelerate monetisation activities.
The six DRO clusters are Meranti, Ubah, Baram Jr., A, C and D. They are mostly located in shallow waters, close to existing production infrastructure. The LLA includes a cluster of three fields known as the Abu Cluster, and the company said a new operator could tap the remaining oil in place (OIP) using existing facilities.