Gas project 'has to start this year'

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) may start the proposed RM15 billion North Malay Basin project this year if it wants to make its first gas delivery by early 2013 as planned, an industry source said.

"As indicated, there will be nine fields with the first delivery of 100 mmscfd (million standard cubic feet of gas per day) by early 2013.

Last Tuesday, Petronas announced that the group and its partners planned to invest RM15 billion in a project to find new gas supplies to meet rising demand in Peninsular Malaysia.

Petronas and its production sharing contract (PSC) partners will undertake the project on an accelerated basis, with the first delivery of 100 mmscfd expected by early 2013, ramping up to 250 mmscfd by 2015.

The project comprises nine discovered gas fields located within Block PM301 and PM302 and in the Bergading contract area, about 300km off the coast of the peninsula.

It will also involve the development of a new 200km pipeline to transport gas from the fields to Kerteh, Terengganu.

"The 200km pipeline is surely a subsea pipeline to transport the gas extracted by the offshore platforms from the fields announced by Petronas.

"The gas will land at Petronas Gas Bhd's onshore gas terminal in Kerteh before being piped to its gas processing plants and then piped into the Peninsular Gas Utilisation (PGU) pipeline network for distribution to customers comprising the power and non-power."


Since 1984, Petronas has been processing natural gas produced by offshore Terengganu fields and supplying piped sales gas to end-users in the power, industrial and commercial sectors in Peninsular Malaysia and power plants in Singapore via the PGU system.

Comprising six gas processing plants with a combined capacity of two billion standard cu ft per day and more than 2,500km of main and lateral pipelines to transmit gas to the customers, the PGU pipeline is linked to the Trans Thailand-Malaysia gas pipeline system in the north.

On partners to develop the RM15 billion project, the source said they are likely to be the existing PSC contractors of the nine discovered gas fields. (Business Times)