Project Profile

Value: US$1,000 million  
Location: Offshore Sabah, Malaysia
Reserves: 2.2tcf of gas
Water Depth: 100m  
Discovery: 1994
Production start-up Year: November 2014
Production: up to 500 MMSCF per day (by April 2015)

The Kebabangan gas field is located in the South China Sea, 130km offshore Sabah, East Malaysia. It is part of the Kebabangan Cluster, which contains two more fields Kamunsu East and Kamunsu East Upthrown Canyon. The water depth at the cluster ranges from 100m to 400m. The cluster is owned by Petronas Carigali, ConocoPhillips and Shell. The three co-owners signed the development and production sharing contract for the cluster in 2007. The Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC) joint venture was set up to act as the cluster operator, and The Kebabangan Northern Hub Project was undertaken to develop the three fields in the cluster. The project began with the development of the Kebabangan field. Production began in November 2014.

The Kebabangan field was discovered by Shell in 1994. An exploration well drilled at the field encountered a thick column of gas associated and a thin rim of oil. Following this, an appraisal well was drilled in 2002. The well penetrated gas columns in number of reservoir intervals. The Kebabangan field is estimated to contain approximately two trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.

The field is tied back to an integrated platform that is designed to serve the entire cluster. The development involved drilling of 12 subsea production wells, and the construction of a drilling and production platform. The drilling was carried out in two phases. The Kebabangan platform is floating platform with the capacity to handle 825 million cubic feet of gas (mcf) and 22,000 barrels of condensate a day. It is installed in a water depth of 142m (466ft). The topsides are installed onto a fixed eight-leg steel jacket in place, weighing 12,300t. The deck weighs 17,000t and features a tender-assisted drilling (TAD) rig, utilities and living quarters for people working onboard.

The Kebabangan field will produce 130 to 140 million barrels of oil equivalent a day (MBOED) at peak. The produced gas reaches the platform, from where it is transferred by a pipeline to the Sabah Oil and Gas terminal built by Petronas at Kimanis. The terminal is located approximately 135km away from the field. Asubsea pipeline of 24in diameter and 135km length was laid to carry the gas from the platform to the terminal at Sabah. Another pipeline of 14in diameter was laid to carry the oil produced at the platform.The produced gas first reaches the SOGT from where it is sent to the Petronas LNG complex at Bintulu through a 500km pipeline for processing.

Operator:

Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC)

Consortium, which consists of:

Petronas: 40% interest
ConocoPhillips: 30% interest
Shell: 30% interest


Contractors:

Aker Solutions: Detailed design and engineering support

Barakah Offshore Petroleum (PBJV Group Sdn Bhd): Provision of dewatering, drying and dry preservation and subsea services

J P Kenny: FEED contract

Kencana Petroleum Berhad: EPC for platform fabrication

McDermott International: EPC for Transportation and installation for CPP

Sime Darby Berhad: EPC for platform topside

Wood Group Kenny (WGK): Contract to support the Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC) in pipeline engineering and flow assurance engineering studies for the Kamansu East (KME) field offshore Sabah, Malaysia. The scope of work will include concept select studies and definition engineering on subsea heating options, thus preventing hydrates, for the 18.6 mile (30 kilometre) gas pipeline which runs from the KME field in 2,460 feet (750 metres) of water to their new shelf edge Kebabangan platform. The pipeline heating technology could be the first application for deepwater gas development in Malaysia.