Malaysia's Petronas and Total of France have signed a heads of agreement to jointly study the development and production of a high carbon dioxide gas field offshore Sarawak in eastern Malaysia, the state-owned oil and gas company said Wednesday.
The K5 gas field, discovered in 1970, is a sour gas field with an up to 70% carbon dioxide content. To develop and produce such a field requires extensive study and research, and if it results in the production of gas, K5 would be the first gas field with more than 50% carbon dioxide to be developed in Malaysia, Petronas said.
"As more and more discovered gas resource in Malaysia contains high carbon dioxide, it is important that Petronas develops the expertise and technological know-how to develop this resource in the safest, most responsible manner," it said.
K5 is about 230 kilometers (144 miles) off of Bintulu in Sarawak in water depths of 80 meters.
The study will explore the possibility of developing K5 in ways that are technically, commercially and environmentally viable. It will also look at carbon dioxide management technologies, such as carbon capture, transportation and sequestration.
The study will start immediately and run 15 months.
Petronas -- because of dwindling output from aging oil fields -- has been pushing exploration into deeper and deeper waters, and has also been returning to previously discovered oil and gas fields to see if today's higher prices may now make them economically viable to produce using new technologies.
"The application of new technologies is part of Petronas' continuous efforts to ensure the security of energy and gas supply to the nation," the company said.
