Unravelling an abandoned giant in Central Luconia Province, offshore Sarawak, Malaysia — Success story of Lang Lebah

Abstract

In 1994, two exploration wells were drilled consecutively to explore for gas prospectivity in Lang Lebah, a Miocene carbonate buildup in the geologic province of Central Luconia located in the Sarawak Basin in Malaysia. High overpressure and operational problems prevented both wells from fully evaluating the target. Postdrill analysis concluded that Lang Lebah has limited potential due to poor reservoir quality, small gas column, and challenging drilling conditions. For these reasons, it was left dormant for 25 years. In 2016, new 3D broadband seismic acquisition and megamerge reprocessing of 3D seismic data sets followed by an integrated application of multidisciplinary workflows successfully derisked key petroleum system elements of the Lang Lebah structure, yielding a more optimistic view of its potential. A new well was justified at Lang Lebah and resulted in one of the major gas discoveries of 2019.