Murphy sees Malaysia gas discovery at about 1 tcf
The Edge Daily
2 February 2007

US oil firm Murphy Oil Corp has found around one trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in deep water off Malaysia, its largest such discovery in the area but not enough yet to develop, a Murphy executive said on Feb 2.

Murphy announced the discovery on Jan 29, calling it significant without indicating its size, but the firm's president for exploration and production, David Wood, told Reuters by telephone it was consistent with pre-drilling estimates of 1 Tcf.

"The discovery is not big enough by itself to be able to develop," he said. But he added that the discovery, at the Rotan well in deepwater Block H off Sabah, was just one of a number of leads in the area.

"Rotan was the first one we have drilled and may well be the biggest one. We don't know yet. We think we have got some pretty good running room to find more gas in and around Rotan."

Wood described the find as an encouraging step toward the overall goal of its partner - Petronas - to prove up enough gas reserves off Sabah to build a pipeline to its Bintulu liquefied natural gas plant in Sarawak.

"The importance of Rotan is that it is a new play," he said, adding that it added to gas discoveries by other explorers off Sabah.

"You have to start looking at the aggregate picture here. I think it's pretty positive for getting over that resource threshold for Sabah gas, justifying the infrastructure." - Reuters