Petra Energy Berhad reported yesterday that the country's state-owned firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) had announced the first oil production from the Kapal, Banang & Meranti (KBM) Cluster fields, offshore Peninsular Malaysia which commenced Dec. 16, 2013.

The KBM Cluster, operated by Coastal Energy KBM Sdn Bhd, was developed with the JV (joint venture) partner of the Company under a Risk Service Contract (RSC) since June 2012. This is the third RSC that has successfully achieved oil production, after the Balai Cluster and Berantai Fields.

The KBM Cluster is an eight-year development project with Kapal being in its first development and production phase. The Kapal field facilities consist of one mobile offshore production unit (MOPU), one storage tanker with approximately 600,000 barrels capacity, one drilling rig with an attached well bay module and two flexible flow lines.

According to Petronas, through this mobile offshore production concept, there is plan to continue determining the potential production from the three KBM fields. The initial production rates from the cluster were over 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), with peak production reaching 13,000 bopd.