TotalEnergies SE has signed agreements to acquire a 30 per cent operating stake in the SK410B Lang Lebah and B14 gas fields off the coast of Sarawak, Malaysia.
The French oil and gas company said Lang Lebah, one of Malaysia’s largest offshore gas discoveries, and the nearby B14 field are planned to be developed as an integrated project.
The combined development is expected to unlock more than 6.5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources, equivalent to more than one billion barrels of oil equivalent.
The gas will supply the existing Malaysia LNG liquefaction plant, with a production plateau of around 10 billion cubic metres, or 353.15 billion cubic feet, per annum.
Under TotalEnergies’ agreements with the three existing owners, Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd will retain a 20 per cent stake, while Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Co Ltd will each keep 25 per cent.
“The development of Lang Lebah and B14 resources will allow the creation of another large-scale gas hub in Malaysia, leveraging shared infrastructure, to supply gas to Malaysia LNG and meet the growing LNG demand in Asia,” said TotalEnergies Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pouyanné.
TotalEnergies aims to raise the share of natural gas in its sales mix to nearly 50 per cent by 2030.
The company said it intends to consolidate its integrated position across the entire LNG value chain, with LNG volumes managed by the company, excluding Russian and spot volumes, expected to grow by 50 per cent between 2025 and 2030.
Last Tuesday, TotalEnergies said it had completed the sale of its 10 per cent stake in the Renaissance Joint Venture, formerly the SPDC JV, to refocus its investment in Nigeria on operated gas and offshore oil assets.
The Renaissance JV owns 18 onshore, swamp and shallow-water Oil Mining Leases in the Niger Delta.
Vaaris Resources JVCo Ltd acquired TotalEnergies’ stake for $800 million.
However, TotalEnergies retains its economic interest in the three Renaissance JV gas licences, which it said account for half of Nigeria LNG’s feed gas: OMLs 23, 28 and 77.
Earlier this year, TotalEnergies made a final investment decision to proceed with the Ima Gas Development, which will develop up to 350 million cubic feet per day of gas for processing at Nigeria LNG, where the company owns a 15 per cent stake.
For the third quarter, TotalEnergies reported hydrocarbon production of 511,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for LNG, while its LNG sales totalled 9.8 million metric tons.