Bid submissions closed at the end of last month for Malaysia’s 2019 exploration bid round that comprises six blocks and about which little has been announced, writes Amanda Battersby.

On offer were four blocks in the North-west Sabah basin in Sabah, East Malaysia and a further two blocks in the Penyu basin off Peninsular Malaysia.

Interested companies now have until 28 June to submit technical reports.

The licensing round was carried out by national oil and gas company Petronas through its Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM) offshoot.

Zebra Data Sciences, which had assisted the MPM with the provision of virtual and workstation data rooms and marketing services, revealed all the blocks to be shallow-water assets.

A joint venture of Schlumberger, TGS and Petroleum Geo-Services recently acquired a 19,000 square kilometre 3D broadband seismic survey that included parts of blocks SB 2T and 2H off Sabah that are on offer in the round.

Schlumberger said these two blocks cover a proven but structurally complex petroleum system with highly prospective carbonate reservoirs.

The 3D survey used multi-measurement streamer technology and processed with broadband techniques to improve frequency content and structural imaging.

Gravity and magnetic data were used to guide earth model building and supplement the seismic data for regional interpretation, particularly of basement structures, according to Schlumberger.

Details of the other available blocks are believed not to have been made public.

The MPM did not respond to an earlier Upstream request for information regarding this year’s licensing exercise.

As of the end of last year, there were 98 production sharing contracts and three risk sharing contracts in Malaysia.

Weekly

Deadline passes for Malaysia's 2019 exploration round