KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 9): A power trip has shut down production from the Ophir field offshore Malaysia, according to a report by energy portal OffshoreEnergyToday.com.

In a report Jan 8, OffshoreEnergyToday.com said Australian oil and gas company Octanex had informed of the shutdown, following a power issue on the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.

The Ophir field was developed via three production wells, a well head platform (WHP) and an FPSO vessel.

The Ophir field was developed pursuant to a Risk Service Contract (RSC) granted in 2014 by Petronas to Ophir Production Sdn Bhd (OPSB) as contractor.

Octanex holds a 50% interest in OPSB and its joint venture shareholders in OPSB are Scomi with 30% and Vestigo Petroleum Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Petronas, with 20%.

The field achieved first oil in November 2017 following the start of production on October 20.

The report said that on Monday, January 8 Octanex informed that the Ophir field was experiencing a non-routine production shutdown.

It said production was shut-in following a power trip on the MTC Ledang FPSO which triggered a process shutdown on both the wellhead platform and the FPSO. Weather conditions delayed access to the wellhead platform for several days after rectification of the FPSO power issue.

Octanex was reported to have said that trouble-shooting activities were underway in order to identify the cause and restore production as soon as possible.

Petronas introduced the RSC as a petroleum arrangement designed with the objective of intensifying upstream Malaysian oil and gas activities and developing smaller, stranded oil and gas resources. Under the terms of the Ophir RSC, the contractor (OPSB) is the service provider and operator of the field, while Petronas remains the resource owner.