SHELL HITS OIL

UPSTREAM. Shell has made an oil discovery with an appraisal well at the Limbayong gas field off the coast of Sabah, Malaysia.
State-run Petronas, which holds a stake in the well, revealed on Monday the Limbayong-2 well had intersected 136 metres of oil bearing sands and added more work would be carried out on the discovery to determine its recoverable volume.

"We are indeed pleased with the discovery which affirms the hydrocarbon prospects of Malaysia's deep-water areas," Petronas executive vice president of exploration and production, Dato' Wee Yiaw Hin said.

The Limbayong discovery lies in 1000 metres of water on Block J, which also hosts the Gumusut oilfield, and is understood to have been made in the early 2000s and contains about 800 billion cubic feet of gas reserves.

The drilling of Limbayong-2 was carried out by a consortium which includes Shell (35%), ConocoPhillips (35%) and Petronas (30%).