KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 7): National oil company (NOC) Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has made a gas discovery at the Hadrah-1 wildcat exploration well of Block SK411, located in the shallow waters of the Balingian province about 170km north-west off the coast of Sarawak.

In a statement on Friday (Jan 7), the NOC said its subsidiary Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB) made the discovery.

PCSB is the operator of the block, with 90% participating interest in the production sharing contract. The remaining 10% is held by E&P Malaysia Venture Sdn Bhd.  

It said the Hadrah-1 well was successfully drilled to a total depth of 1,850 metres in November 2021 and encountered gas within an approximately 200-metre thick sequence of high-quality sandstone and carbonate reservoirs.  

Petronas vice-president of exploration, upstream, Emeliana Rice-Oxley said the gas discovery at the Hadrah-1 wildcat exploration well by PCSB further proves the promising "prospectivity" of the underexplored Cycle I, II & III plays within the Balingian province.  

“The excellent quality of reservoirs encountered augurs the remaining potential of the surrounding areas, with PCSB well positioned to pursue the untapped similar plays in Blocks SK411 and SK306.

“We look forward to delivering more natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, safely and reliably to the market,” she added. 

Hadrah-1 was Petronas’ third gas discovery in the province in 2021 after Sirung-1 and Kulintang-1 in March and May respectively. In 2019, oil and gas were also discovered within the same play at the D18 field.