JOHOR BARU: The RM10 billion Tapis Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) project will be the country’s first full field EOR project and one of the largest offshore EOR projects in South- east Asia. ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia president and chairman J Hunter Ferris said in his speech at the Tapis-R topsides onshore fabrication celebrations at the Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Bhd (MMHE) yard in Pasir Gudang that the project demonstrates ExxonMobil’s continuing commitment to Malaysia and its partnership with Petroliam Nasional Bhd  to produce domestic supplies of oil and gas to meet the increasing energy needs.

“We will continue to work with Petronas and Carigali to develop the country’s significant petroleum resources for the benefit of Malaysia ... and ensure sustainable energy supplies for the future,” he said.    

“Under the Tapis EOR project,” Ferris said, “techniques using water-alternating-gas injection at the Tapis waterflood reservoirs are expected to improve oil recovery and bring a new lease of life to the field.”

The Tapis R is an integrated deck weighing an estimated 18,000 tonnes with space for production processing equipment, utilities systems and living quarters for 145 personnel, he said. Its jacket is the heaviest built by ExxonMobil in Malaysia, weighing in at 5,500 tonnes, he said.

He congratulated the Tapis project management team working together with MMHE that clocked more than nine million man hours without a lost time incident  to date.

The Tapis EOR project is one of several upstream investments highlighted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak under the Economic Transformation Programme in 2011, Ferris said, adding that ExxonMobil and its joint-venture partner, Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, will invest over RM10 billion in the project. — Bernama

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 25, 2013.