KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will offer 13 offshore exploration blocks in Malaysia at the launch of its annual bidding round on February 26.
The national oil company said the upcoming Malaysia Bid Round (MBR) 2021 was aimed at attracting investors with unique capabilities to unlock the full potential of the hydrocarbon resources in the country.
The bid includes six discovered fields to incentivise investors to undertake more extensive exploration activities within those blocks.
MBR 2021 will feature the offering of four deepwater blocks adjacent to the coast of Sarawak and Sabah, which had seen prominent exploration discoveries in recent years.
Petronas senior vice president of Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM)Mohamed Firouz Asnan said MBR 2021 would be the single contact point for investors, which was a unique feature differentiating the company against its peers globally.
"MBR 2021 will feature significant enhancements including larger block areas coupled with flexible bidding options and low entry costs.
"We will also be offering relatively new fiscal terms to be applied in the production sharing contracts such as enhanced profitability for the shallow water blocks, the late life assets and small field assets, which are designed to match the risk and rewards of the investments with the type of assets available," he said in a statement today.
Mohamed Firouz said the terms had been formulated based on the feedback from industry players, taking into account market conditions, to strengthen Malaysia's position as the O&G hub in a growing and thriving Southeast Asian market.
"Besides improved fiscal terms, Malaysia offers good network connectivity by way of established world-class infrastructure which enables ease of monetisation," he added.
The MBR 2021 launch will be held virtually here and live-streamed to three different markets namely North America, United Kingdom and Europe as well as Asia Pacific.
MBR is an annual bid organised by Petronas that offers potential investors with different opportunities ranging from exploration blocks, discovered resources to late life assets as well as study opportunities to grow their energy portfolio and create value.
With the main focus of MBR 2021 on exploration blocks, Petronas said the opportunities around late life assets and small fields were made available progressively throughout the year.
MPM acts for Petronas in the overall management of Malaysia's domestic petroleum resources throughout the lifecycle of upstream O&G assets.