Salamander Energy plc disclosed Wednesday that it has signed a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for Block PM322, located in the Melaka Strait on the Malay side of the Central Sumatra Basin, offshore West Coast Peninsular Malaysia. Block PM322 is the Group’s first license in Malaysia. Salamander will operate the PSC with an 85 percent working interest. 

The PM322 PSC contains the Port Klang oil discovery which was made by Sun Oil in 1991, in the same drilling campaign that also resulted in the discovery of the Salamander operated Bualuang oil field in the Gulf of Thailand. The PSC is located in shallow water and covers an area of approximately 7,722 square miles (20,000 square kilometers). This offshore area has seen very limited drilling with only six wells ever drilled in the Malaysian side of the Melaka Strait. However, with two discoveries reported, the extension of the Sumatran basins into Malaysian waters has been demonstrated, indicating the hydrocarbon potential of the acreage. 

The committed work program consists of shooting 3D seismic and drilling one exploration well before December 2016. James Menzies, chief executive of Salamander commented: “We have been targeting an entry into Malaysia for some time and I am delighted that we were able to find an opportunity that is an excellent strategic fit with our model of building out from discovered resources. There are numerous fallow discoveries in Malaysia that would provide further running room in country and we look forward to building a successful business in Malaysia over the coming years.”