Southeast Asia: Eastern promise

Southeast Asia has not been the most popular deep-water region, for a number of reasons, including uncompetitive fiscal terms, uncertain prospectivity and long-running territorial disputes. But after strong exploration results in recent years, a few basins look increasingly attractive, writes Cris Heaton

THE BIGGEST deep-water development in the region so far is Royal Dutch/Shell-operated Malampaya, in the Philippines. This came on stream at the beginning of 2002, fuelling three power stations from a gasfield in 850 metres of water in the northwest Palawan basin. Recoverable reserves are put at 2.7 trillion cubic feet (cf) of gas and 85m barrels of condensate, with production expected to last for at least 20 years. The gasfield overlies an oil rim, estimated to hold recoverable reserves of around 30m barrels, which the government is keen to develop. But with development costs estimated at up to $400m, Shell says the project is too marginal and the government is seeking other developers. Unoc