Shell Starts Production at Malaysia Gas Project

Shell PLC has announced the delivery of the first gas from its Timi field platform in Malaysia, designed to produce up to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Output is carried through a new 49.7-mile pipeline to the Shell-operated F23 production hub, the British energy giant has said.

Shell, whose Sarawak Shell Berhad operates the Timi field development project through a 75 percent stake in the SK318 production sharing contract, touted the platform as a testament to its drive for less-emission production.

“Timi features Shell’s first wellhead platform in Malaysia that is powered by a solar and wind hybrid power system”, it said in a press release this week. “This unmanned platform is also more cost efficient, as a result of it being around 60 percent lighter in weight, than a conventional tender-assisted drilling wellhead platform that relies on oil and gas for power.”

Shell had started up its first fully solar-powered wellhead platform, on the Gorek field, on May 24, 2020, as announced by the company July 31, 2020. Sarawak Shell operates the field under the SK408 production sharing contract.

Zoe Yujnovich, Shell’s integrated gas and upstream director, said in a statement about the Timi gas platform startup, “Timi demonstrates we are delivering more value with less emissions”.

“It shows our ability to innovate and deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable projects that support a balanced energy transition for Malaysia”, Yujnovich added.

Shell discovered Timi, a sweet gas field, in 2018 under the SK318 contract with PETRONAS Carigali Sendirian Bhd (15 percent), a subsidiary of Malaysia’s state-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS), and Brunei Energy Exploration (10 percent). Timi sits about 126 miles northwest of Miri, Sarawak and 157 miles north-west of Bintulu in the same state, according to Shell.

Rosmari-Marjoram Development

Besides Timi, Shell also has another gas project in its operated Rosmari and Marjoram fields in Sarawak, one of the two states on the Malaysian side of Borneo, an island shared with Brunei and Indonesia.

On September 5, 2022 Shell announced the final investment decision for a gas project serving the fields. Planned to supply the PETRONAS LNG Complex in Bintulu, the project is designed to produce 800 million cubic feet of gas a day, Shell said, projecting the start of production 2026.

“The project comprises a remotely operated offshore platform and onshore gas plant, with infrastructure that includes one of the longest sour wet gas offshore pipelines in the world stretching more than 200 km [124.3 miles]”, Shell said.

Shell, the operator with an 80 percent interest (PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd has 20 percent), called the project its “largest onshore project in Sarawak since the construction of Bintulu Crude Oil Terminal and Bintulu Integrated Facility in the late 1970s”

“Rosmari-Marjoram development will be primarily powered by renewable energy; the offshore platform will utilize power from 240 solar panels, while the onshore plant is connected to the Sarawak grid system which is supplied mainly from hydroelectric plants”, it said in the announcement. “Diesel generators and batteries are to be used as backup.”

The deepwater sour gas Rosmari-Marjoram fields were discovered 2014.

Sarawak Pipeline

Shell is also advancing the development of three other fields in Sarawak. On July 6 McDermott International Ltd. announced it has won a construction contract for the pipeline that would serve the F22, F27 and Selasih fields.

“Under the scope of the contract, McDermott will perform transportation and installation services for two pipeline segments and one section of flexible pipelay”, the Texas-based company said in a press statement. “McDermott will also provide pre-commissioning works on all infield pipelines and perform the structural installation of three jackets and topsides.”