K5 is located about 230km from Bintulu, in water depth of 80 metres.
Discovered in 1970, K5 is a sour gas field offshore Sarawak in eastern Malaysia. It had been left undeveloped as it contains up to 70 % carbon dioxide (CO²) content.
Anyway, Petronas and Total have now signed a heads of agreement to jointly study its development and production despite these unattractive conditions.
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.
In fact there are some good reasons for these two companies to team up in this challenge:
– Gas market prices in Asia remain at a sustainable good level
– Malaysia has many gas fields with high content of CO² for which Petronas is interested in acquiring the technology
– Precisely, Total has built now some years of experience in CO² Capture Compression and Sequestration (CCS) that Total would like to value to get access to offshore resources.
Therefore the goal for Petronas and Total is to explore the possibility of developing the field in ways that are technically, commercially and environmentally viable in using the CCS technologies.
In that respect K5 development is a real challenge which may have limited profitability, but in case of success K5 will open the access to broader resources for both companies.
The implementation of this agreement starts immediately and take 15 months for completion.
