History Of Oil and Gas Industry in Brunei

HISTORY OF OIL ANG GAS INDUSTRY IN BRUNEI by Yusri@2009

• 1899 - For the first time in Brunei history, oil well was drilled. It reached a depth of 850 feet below the Earth surface, unfortunately, this site ( found through floating oil seepage at Sungai Berkunchi)  contained no oil.

• The easiest way to find oil field location in this era was by drilling well near the oil seepages spot besides a confirmation from Geology analysis.
• It was not until 12 years after the first drilling, oil exploration was continued. British Borneo Petroleum Syndicate Limited made a Geological survey and drilled 4 wells at Bukit Puan and Belait anticline near Labi between year 1912 – 1917 but found no oil.
  
  
  
• Singapore Consortium, the Shanghai Langkat Company was awarded right to explore small area of Jerudong and made 5 explorations on oil and gas. One of the drilled well containing oil but it has no commercial value.
  
  
• Later Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschppij (A Dutch Company) made its first drill in Belait district
  
  
• In the earliest 1920's Shell Exploration staff in Miri began to work further afield in Brunei and drilled a total of 8 wells but all were found to be dry holes. The Shell Group Company also introduced modern survey technique in a low relief with little Geology yield results.
  
  
• British Malayan Petroleum Company, Shell subsidiary was formed in year 1922. Their first drilled well named Labi 5 found to be dried but later they found a well that produced gas at high pressure but was abandoned in 1931.
  
  
• In 1926 while Mariott and Cocaharine who worked for British Malayan Petroleum in Miri were on the journey to Swiss Geophysict in Tali they stopped at Sungei Seria and smell oil fumes. This was the first evident towards oil exploration in Seria.
  
  
• In 1928, during the oil exploration at Padang Berawa, hundreds of gas seepage containing Methane and Ethane were reported, which indicates a high possibility of oil and Gas field downward. A gravity method indicates two indistinct gravity lines and oil showing in shallow core holes.
  
  
• British Malayan Company was then began the oil exploration in Seria
  • The ineffective cable tools equipments were used to punch hole into the ground using the pulley system.
    
    
  • After few feet hole were made, the bit were pull out and replaced with bailer (open tube with valve at the bottom) to remove the smashed rock and others.
    
    
  • The technology used during that years were not so discourage, tough and slow
    
    
  • Wall collapse and salt water flooding the well from higher sands caused the operation getting harder and more challenging.
    
    
  • Since the oil drilling via cable tools equipment was so slow, the operation which started in July 1928 and witnesses by Pengiran Jaya Negara pengiran Haji Abu Bakar was extended to year 1929.
    
    
  • The oil and gas strike for the first time from a commercial valued reservoir to the well at depth of 974 feet. Later, the name Padang Berawa disappeared and replaced with name Seria.
    
    
• During these earliest year, Brunei had a very poor country development which indirectly slowing down the oil and gas industry
  
  
  • Transportation was so difficult,
    
    
    • Beach sides were used for land transportation
      • Sometimes affected by the water tidal.
      • Sometimes vehicle get bogged while using the road
        
        
    • Small rowing boat was used as a ferry to cross river but only available at certain time.
      
      
  • Wild water animals especially giant Crocodile make the place to be insecure
  • Stone were unavailable in this country and need to be imported from Niah which was a very far away.
  • Padang Berawa (Sungai Seria) is a swamp
    • Walking around this muddy area was very difficult like climbing
    • Water is a major problem here; the only available water supply was from the hidden depth roots with sour taste and red in colour.
    • The place is submerged by water during rainy season
      
      
• By 1938 – Road between Kuala Belait and Seria were developed, transportation become easy and cheaper

• February 1955 , first Seria Gas Plant was completed and ready for operation:
  • To process about 100 tons of Seria Crude oil each day.
  • To produce sufficient gasoline and fuel for country use. To deal with 3.2 million cubic metres of natural gas per day.
    
    
  • The underneath pressure became lower after oil was pumped out of the reservoir. Gas was injected to the fluid to 'reduce' its weight {specific gravity) therefore able to reach the surface.
    
    
  • 1933 – 1^st offshore well was drilled from a single well platform connected to the shore by narrow boardwalk and the next few years encourage the development of deviated drilling or directional drilling which enable the hole to be 'bent' in any desired direction.
    
    
  • 1950s : decision was made that, it is more economic and undemanding to built a platform in the offshore to extract the oil/gas underneath sea compare if it was extracted via deviated well
    
    
  • 1957 : BMPC which required a major rule in Sultanate was reform to Brunei Shell Petroleum sendirian Berhad, BSP which is share by ratio of 50:50 ; Brunei Government and Royal Dutch
    
    
• 1959 : High deviation well of angle 54⁰ was implemented succesfully,
  • 1963 : First offshore oil well – South west Ampa, this reservoirs hold more than half of Brunei Darussalam's total gas reserves and gas production from the field accounts for 60 per cent of Brunei Production in year company's total production.
    
    
    • 1972:  Brunei Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant opened this year and it is the 4th largest LNG plants in the world by that time
      
      
  • 1979 – Oil production was at the peak, over 250,000 barrels per day. Since then it has been deliberately cut back to extend the life of oil reserves and improve recovery rates
    
    
  • 2001 - His Royal Highness The Crown Prince Pengiran Muda Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah officially launches the opening up of new offshore Blocks J and K (10,000 sq.km total area) and in year 2005 : PetroleumBRUNEI launches the onshore Block L and M (5,264 sq.km)
    
    
  • 2002 - The incorporated of 100% government owned Oil Exploration and Production company - Brunei National Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (PetroleumBRUNEI)
    
    
  • Gas Chemicals Company Inc., PetroleumBRUNEI and ITOCHU Corporation) is building the country's first methanol plant which is expected to operate by 2010.
    
    
• Year 2000 estimation , Brunei reserve for oil is 1.4BBbbl and LNG at 13.8 Trillion scf
  
  
  • 2009 : BSP has spans more than 200 land and offshore structures linked by over 2,000km of pipeline, recovering oil and gas from 4,700 reservoirs and producing through 750 wells and within this 80 years, BSP has produce 6 billion barrel of oil
  • To date : A lot of advanced Technology has been brought to the country: such as fish hook wells to reach subsea reservoir, snake wells that weave several kilometers underground pockets of oil and gas and smart technologies which allows to monitor and control the operation , in real time from a comfort place in the office

 || The End ||

References:

• 
  
  
  G.C.Harper, 1975, The Discovery and Development Of The Seria Oilfield,
• OOI Keat Gin, 2004, South East Asia, A Historical Encyclopedia, From Angkor Wat to West Timor, ISBN 1-57607-770-5, Google Book, page 276-277, http://books.google.com.bn/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=&f=false
• Petroleum Brunei, News and Event, PB Website, retrieved on 14^th October 2009, http://www.pb.com.bn/news.asp
• Borneo Bulletin dated Apr 18^th 2009, Ultra Modern Platform For New Oil Field,Brunei FM, retrieved on 29^th October 2009, http://news.brunei.fm/2009/04/18/ultra-modern-platform-for-new-oil-field/
  

(this is my assignment report for Dr Teh - Visitng lecturer from MOE@2009)

The Discovery and Development of the Seria Oilfield

Last Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book on display at Solitude at the Mall. I remembered this book vaguely some 30 years ago when my father bought it from the publisher, Brunei Museums. I could not find the book at my parents' house anymore, someone either pinched it or we could not find it among the many things being stored at my parents' house. Sometime last week, I saw it again for the first time since, displayed with many books on Brunei at the ICC for the Raja Payung Negara Exhibition. An evil thought did cross my mind of pinching the book but the angel in me told me that I will be able to find it sooner or later. And et voila! Solitude had about a dozen of the books at only $10 each.

What's so great about 'The Discovery and Development of the Seria Oilfield' written by GC Harper? Well, first of all, this the only book in existence that I know of describing events about how the Seria oilfield (our country's lifeline) was discovered and the many developments to build up Seria up to about 1970s (the book was published in 1975 and reprinted in 1990). That said, there are many things we do not know about. For instance, did you know that oil was discovered in Miri first in 1910 and not in Seria? And that Shell first worked out of Miri to develop both the Miri and Seria oilfields? So there are a great many things we do not know about. Of course, cynics will say that this knowledge is not critical. I agree but knowing the past is fun especially for history buffs like me.

A number of new knowledge which I thought I will share with you all. The location of the first well to be drilled in Brunei specifically to produce oil was not in Seria. It was at Ayer Berkunci (around the Sungai Kebun Kampung Ayer area). It was not the 20th century but in the 19th century, albeit the last year of the 19th century - 1899. Why drill here? Oil prospectors in the 19th century already suspected that the Borneo island area had oil potential as there were many seepages (oil coming up to the surface) found in many areas. In Labuan, the search was on as early as 1866. Sometime in 1911, they started drilling in Labi and Bukit Puan in Belait. In 1923, they drilled in Tutong. But drilling continued in the Belait District until oil was discovered in Seria in 1929.

Seria was not called Seria then. The local name was Padang Berawa (Berawa is some sort of wild pigeon). Padang Berawa covers the area between Sungai Seria and Sungai Bera. And it was a swamp. The water in the area was dark red and and not suitable for human consumption. During rainy season, the whole area is submerged in water. But once oil was discovered, for some reason, the name Padang Berawa disappeared. The little river, Sungai Seria now provided the name, Seria to the newly developed town that was built for all the workers converging there.

How did they discovered the Seria oilfields? According to Salam, the Shell newspaper, a Mr. Mariott and Hon. Cochrane (later to become Lord Chochrane of Cults), both working for Sarawak Oilfields Ltd (SOL), in 1926 visited Kuala Belait which then consisted of a few fishermen's huts, on their way to visit a geologist somewhere in the Sungai Tali/Lumut area. On the way they stopped at Sungai Seria and while resting there, Cochrane smelled oil and discussed his hunch with the geologist and decided that the search for oil should be extended to the south (Seria) leading to the first well to be drilled in Seria in 1928. Oil was discovered in 1929 after the well had deepened to about 974 feet and you know the history of it since.

There were many companies searching for oil in Brunei then as compared to now. Among them include the British Borneo Petroleum Syndicate Limited, the Shanghai Langkat Company (a Singapore consortium), Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij (a Dutch company), the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company Limited (drilled in Tutong), Asiatic Petroleum Company (Federated Malay States) Limited and the British Malayan Petroleum Company Limited (BMPC). The latter two are Shell companies. The current Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Limited was not formed until 1957, being the first company to be registered under the new Companies Act taking over from the BMPC.

Source : http://bruneiresources.blogspot.com/2006/08/history-of-brunei-oil.html

Brief History : Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Who is Nelson Mandela ? 


This man  ever quote                    "The struggle is my life,"

I think most of  us know who is this famous man especially during this World Cup 2010 in South Africa.( no, no I don't mean he is a world Cup football player :) ). 


Nelson Mandela, a former President of South Africa who born on 18 July 1918 received the Nobel Peace Prize as an accolade to all people who have worked for peace and stood against racism. It was as much an award to his person as it was to the ANC and all South Africa s people. In particular, he regards it as a tribute to the people of Norway who stood against apartheid while many in the world were silent. 


- During his school time :  He was suspended from college for joining in a protest boycott.


- But we never know that he was jailed for 27 years! and  while in jail, his reputation grew and he became widely known as the most significant black leader in South Africa


- During the whole of the fifties, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. For much of the latter half of the decade, he was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial, at great cost to his legal practice and his political work.

- Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990. The event was broadcast live all over the world.

- Mandela remarried for the third time on his 80th Birthday in 1998.

- Mandela became the oldest elected President of South Africa when he took office at the age of 75 in 1994


- Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.

One of his famous Quote:

" During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people, I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if it needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. "

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb"

further reading : http://www.anc.org.za/people/mandela.html

photo credit : http://fullshangwe.blogspot.com/2009/08/nelson-mandela-bay-ready-for-2010.html