Murphy Oil's subsidiary, Murphy Sabah Oil Co. Ltd., completed a farm-in agreement to acquire Esso Exploration & Production Sabah Ltd.'s 80 percent interest in deepwater Block H offshore Sabah, Malaysia.
With this acquisition, Murphy Sabah also takes over operatorship of the H block, in which the remaining 20 percent equity is owned by Petronas Carigali, an exploration and production arm of Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas corporation.
Block H lies contiguous with Block K, which also is held by Murphy Sabah and Petronas Carigali.
The company said the combination of Blocks K and H gives Murphy Sabah access to over 6.4 million undrilled areas in one of the most promising deepwater plays in the world.
Murphy's first objective will be to supplement the existing 2-D seismic data on Block H with a phased 3-D program that will begin in the second quarter of 2001, followed by a drilling program commencing later in the year.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
