Sabah largest oil producing state – Shell

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah accounted for almost 50 per cent of the 600,000 barrels of oil per day produced in Malaysia, making it the country’s largest oil producing state, said Shell Malaysia Chairman Datuk Iain Lo.

Shell currently produces about 60 per cent of the total crude oil in Sabah, he said.

“We hope to increase the percentage in the near future as the company prepares to bring another deepwater project onstream,” he said in his speech at the Plaza Shell opening ceremony here yesterday.

Located at Hap Seng building owned by Hap Seng Group of Companies, Plaza Shell was officially opened by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

As a leading oil and gas company in Sabah, Lo said Shell also discovered two deepwater projects namely Gumusut in 2003 and Malikai in 2004.

He said at full capacity, Gumusut alone could produce 125,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe), representing a quarter of Malaysia’s oil production, while Malikai is expected to have a peak production of 60,000 boe a day.

“We believe that there is still significant potential in Sabah’s deepwater and as the world leader in deepwater, Shell can help make the most of these opportunities,” he added.

He said Shell has decided to divest its North Sabah shallow water operations to focus on deepwater, adding the company remains confident in Malaysia including Sabah despite the current global economic challenges and lower crude oil prices.

“We believe with our downstream fuels, lubricants and bitumen business we are the perfect partner to power Sabah’s growth,” he said. Bernama