Malaysia’s Muhibbah Engineering has been awarded a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of a wellhead platform for the Ophir oil field offshore Peninsular Malaysia.
The contract has been awarded by Ophir Production, a joint venture company that is formed by an oil and gas company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Octanex N.L., together with its two Malaysian joint venturers, Scomi Energy Services and Vestigo Petroleum. Octanex owns 50% stake in the JV.
The Ophir platform will be fabricated at the Muhibbah yard at Klang approximately 40km south-west of Kuala Lumpur, before being installed in the Ophir field.
According to Octanex, the schedule for the EPCIC of the Ophir platform will see the platform installed in the field in the third quarter of 2016.
The company further says that a jack-up drilling rig will then be mobilized to site and development drilling will start. The current schedule has the Ophir filed starting oil production in late 2016, said Octanex.
Octanex’s share of the Ophir project is fully funded via Ophir Production’s 75% project financing and Octanex’s strategic alliance and funding arrangements with major shareholder, Malaysian, Sabah International Petroleum (SIP). SIP is an entity wholly owned by the Malaysian State of Sabah via the Sabah Development Bank.
Octanex COO, Rae Clark , said: “The award of the wellhead platform contract is a significant step towards first oil for the Ophir development and marks a major milestone in the transformation of Octanex from an exploration company to a producer.”
The Ophir oil field is being developed via three production wells, a wellhead platform (WHP) and leased Floating Production Storage and Offload (FPSO) vessel.
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