Bendai gas find is located in the Balingian province off the coast of Sarawak.

Malaysia’s national upstream company Petronas Carigali is set to imminently spud an appraisal well targeting the 2023 Bendai gas discovery on Block SK 306 offshore Sarawak, East Malaysia.

PV Drilling’s jack-up rig PV Drilling VI has been lined up for the delineation well, which is expected to take until 24 October to complete.

The drilling operation is being supported by two Malaysia-flagged vessels — SK Prelude and Setia Jihad, both large anchor-handling tug supply vessels, according to Veson Nautical’s VesselsValue.

The operator in October 2023 abandoned the Bendai-1 wildcat, which was drilled by Velesto Energy’s jack-up rig Naga 6, because of technical challenges during operations. Although the gas discovery well had been completed, “unspecified structures” remained on the seafloor at the Bendai-1 location, Petronas Carigali informed at the time.

Bendai was one of several gas discoveries that Petronas Carigali made that year on Block SK 306 in the Balingian province off the Sarawak coast. Its other 2023 successes on the acreage include the Gedombak-1, Nafiri-1, Sirih-1 and Nujong-1 exploration wells.

The previous year, the Malaysian operator delivered with its Nahara oil and gas discovery on Block SK 306, which it hailed as one of the company’s most significant oil finds in a decade.

The shallow-water Nahara-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 2468 metres and encountered hydrocarbons in Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene horizons. This discovery was appraised last year.

Petronas Carigali in recent years has been on an exploration roll in the prospective Balingian province, after notching up three gas discoveries in 2021 including Hadrah in contiguous Block SK 411 to the south.

The Malaysian national upstream company currently operates the Block SK 306 production sharing contract with a 100% working interest.

By Amanda Battersby