Petrofac to Lead Development of Berantai Field For Petronas

Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, announces that it has signed a Risk Service Contract (RSC) to lead the development of the Berantai field, - offshore Peninsular Malaysia, for Petroliam Nasional Berhad (‘PETRONAS’), the Malaysian national oil company.

Petrofac has a 50% interest in the RSC, alongside local partners Kencana Energy Sdn Bhd (‘Kencana’) and Sapura Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd (‘Sapura’), both of which hold a 25% interest (together the ‘Berantai partners’). The Berantai partners will develop the field and will subsequently operate the field for a period of seven years after first gas production.

As part of the fast-track development, a wellhead platform will be installed to support the drilling of eighteen wells, with a second wellhead platform expected to be installed in a subsequent phase. Both platforms will be connected to a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel which will be jointly owned by the Berantai partners. The FPSO will undergo modification to ensure suitability for the Berantai development. Produced gas will be exported by subsea pipeline via the Angsi Field, while oil will be offloaded via shuttle tanker.

The project is targeting first gas by end of December 2011 with the first phase wells expected to be completed during 2012. The full field development, excluding delivery of the FPSO, is anticipated to require capital investment of approximately US$800 million (of which Petrofac’s share is 50%). Under the terms of the RSC, the Berantai partners will receive a rate of return linked to their performance against an agreed incentive structure, including project costs, timing to first gas and sustained gas delivery after project completion, with an ongoing incentive structure based on operational uptime.

Rob Jewkes, managing director, Petrofac Energy Developments added: “We are delighted to be working with PETRONAS, a customer we know well. While continuing to develop the first and second phases of the Cendor field, we are pleased that PETRONAS has once again chosen to partner with Petrofac. We are looking forward to drawing upon our experience of fast-track developments to provide a range of fully integrated services from design and construction through to sub-surface capability and operations.”

Ayman Asfari, Petrofac’s group chief executive commented: “We are looking forward to working with local partners Kencana and Sapura, both of whom bring unique capabilities and local knowledge, on this exciting project. We aim to demonstrate how the integrated delivery of our services can add significant value for resource holders under an alternative commercial framework, where they retain full ownership of their resources and where our returns are linked to project delivery, to create perfect alignment with the resource holder’s objectives.”