Economic Report 2013/2014: Mining rises a marginal 1%

by **Cals** Sat 26 Oct 2013, 21:03

Published: Saturday October 26, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday October 26, 2013 MYT 9:45:42 AM
Economic Report 2013/2014: Mining rises a marginal 1%

THE mining sector saw marginal growth of 1% during the first half of 2013 compared with 1.2% in the corresponding period last year on the back of lower crude production.
Crude oil, including condensates, fell by 0.03% to 576,744 barrels per day (bpd) during the eight months to August due to lower production from maturing oil fields.
Given the decline in production, efforts have been made to optimise existing oil fields and accelerate new development projects, which have begun to yield results.
For 2013, production is expected to rise 2.5% to 600,000 bpd from 585,182 last year with output from new fields, notably Gumusut-Kakap, which should come onstream in the fourth quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, production of natural gas, which grew 6.1% to 6,258 million standard cu ft per day (mmscfd) between January and August, cushioned the decline in crude oil output.
Growth was courtesy of higher volumes from Petronas’ LNG complex in Sarawak and additional output from the Telok gas field in Peninsular Malaysia.

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Natural gas production is expected to rise 3.8% in 2013 to 6,250 mmscfd from 6,023 last year given stronger demand from the power, industrial, petrochemical industries and external markets.
Petronas will continue to pursue exploration activity to sustain production levels.
As of end-June, four new oil wells have been discovered, including Adong Kecil West, offshore Sarawak and the Ara fields, offshore Peninsular Malaysia.
In addition, six new fields are to be brought onstream, boosting the total number of Malaysia’s producing fields to 143, comprising 82 oil and 61 gas fields.
Crude oil reserves stood at 5.85 billion barrels as at Jan 1, 2013. This is estimated to last 27 years, while gas reserves stood at 98.3 trillion cu ft, sufficient to last 43 years.
Dated Brent traded at an average US$108 per barrel during the first six months of the year on an increasingly uncertain global outlook.
However, between July and September, it averaged above US$110 a barrel on better prospects in key advanced economies.
Riding on this trend, Tapis prices also rose to US113 a barrel in July compared with US$108 in April.
For this year, the International Energy Agency projected that global oil demand will increase to 90.8 billion bpd.
On the supply side, global oil supply is estimated to remain tight at 91.3 million bpd.