Malaysia’s energy giant Petronas is considering a new standalone floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project offshore Suriname after its latest drilling success on Block 52.

Petronas on Thursday confirmed it had delivered with the Sloanea-2 appraisal well on Block 52, which also hosts the 2024 Fusaea discovery and the 2023 Roystonea find in a water depth of 800 metres.

The operator said the successful appraisal of its Sloanea discovery had bolstered its prospects in the prospective Suriname-Guyana basin “and opens the possibility of developing a standalone FLNG project at the field in the future”.

The December 2020 Sloanea-1 exploration well encountered several hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone packages with good reservoir qualities in the Campanian section.

Petronas added it is currently assessing the feasibility of an integrated development strategy for gas and oil extraction within Block 52.

While Sloanea is a gas asset, Roystonea and Fusaea — which lie about nine kilometres apart from each other — contain oil.

Consultant Wood Mackenzie earlier pegged the latter two fields’ recoverable resources at approaching 400 million barrels of oil, which it said could be sufficient to support a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with processing capacity of up to 100,000 barrels per day.

Equal co-venturers in the 4749-square kilometre Block 52 which lies north of the coast of Paramaribo are Petronas and US supermajor ExxonMobil.

The co-venturers have a letter of agreement with Suriname’s state-owned oil company and market regulator Staatsolie that would provide them with a 10-year tax-free period from the start of gas production at Block 52.

Petronas said that it had achieved “outstanding successes” in its exploration and appraisal activities in both Peninsular Malaysia and internationally, during the first half of 2024.

The company hailed the Bekok Deep-1 oil and gas discovery in made in May offshore Peninsular Malaysia, which opened up a new play.

Petronas noted Bekok Deep stands out due to its promising well testing results, which demonstrate a strong hydrocarbon flow rate. The discovery highlights substantial hydrocarbon potential in this new play, marking a significant milestone in Peninsular Malaysia’s energy sector over the past decade, it said.

“We are extremely pleased with these breakthroughs, as they reaffirm Petronas’ commitment and expertise to providing exceptional value through substantial discoveries in Malaysia and internationally, driven by strategic and innovative approaches,” said Petronas executive vice president and chief executive of upstream, Mohd Jukris Abdul Wahab.

“These milestones underscore Petronas’ ongoing initiatives to enhance our exploration endeavours in selected focus regions and [to] strive for sustainable resource replenishment,” added Jukris. (Upstream)…[+]