Kebabangan

Kebabangan Oil and Gas Field Profile

Location

The Kebabangan oil and gas field is located in the South China Sea, approximately 130 kilometers offshore from Sabah, East Malaysia. It is part of the Kebabangan Cluster, which includes the Kamunsu East and Kamunsu East Upthrown Canyon fields.

Ownership and Operation

The field is owned by a consortium of companies:

• Petronas Carigali (40%)
• ConocoPhillips (30%)
• Shell (30%).

The Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC) operates the field as part of a joint venture.

Discovery and Reserves

• The Kebabangan field was discovered in 1994 by Shell.
• An appraisal well drilled in 2002 confirmed the presence of a thick column of gas and a thin rim of oil.
• The field is estimated to contain approximately two trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.

Field Development

• The development of the Kebabangan field began with a 12-well, two-phase drilling campaign.
• The project includes an integrated drilling and production platform designed to serve the entire Kebabangan Cluster.
• The platform is a floating structure installed in a water depth of 142 meters (466 feet), mounted on a fixed eight-leg steel jacket weighing 12,300 tons, with a deck weighing 17,000 tons. It features a tender-assisted drilling (TAD) rig, utilities, and accommodation for staff.

Production

• Production from the Kebabangan field started in November 2014.
• The field is expected to produce 130 to 140 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBOED) at peak production.
• The produced gas is transferred via a 24-inch diameter, 135-kilometer-long subsea pipeline to the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) at Kimanis. From there, it is sent to the Petronas liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex at Bintulu through a 500-kilometer pipeline for processing.

Infrastructure

• The Kebabangan platform has the capacity to handle 825 million cubic feet of gas and 22,000 barrels of condensate per day.
• Another pipeline of 14 inches in diameter was laid to carry the oil produced at the platform.
• The Malikai deepwater field, developed by Shell, is also tied back to the Kebabangan platform, which has surplus capacity to accommodate future tie-ins from third-party fields.

Contracts and Contractors

• The front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract was awarded to Aker Solutions, valued at approximately $30 million.
• Sime Darby Engineering was awarded a $380 million contract to fabricate the topsides of the platform.
• Kencana Petroleum fabricated the substructure for the project under a contract valued at RM208 million.
• Other contractors involved include SapuraKencana Petroleum Berhad, MMHE, and Wood Group for various aspects of the project such as engineering, fabrication, and pipeline engineering.

Production Statistics

• As of 2021, the field produced approximately 1,791.5 million cubic meters of gas per year and 1.22 million barrels of oil per year.

Future Outlook

• Production from the Kebabangan Cluster is expected to continue until the field reaches its economic limit in 2047, with peak production anticipated in 2025. The field currently accounts for about 3% of Malaysia's daily oil and gas output.