(Adds Shell declined to comment)
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Exports of Malaysia's
flagship crude oil Kimanis will fall in October and November
after a production issue at an offshore oilfield operated by
Royal Dutch Shell, three sources with knowledge of the
matter said.
Petroleum Brunei, one of the stakeholders, cancelled a
tender to sell a Kimanis crude cargo that was supposed to load
in early November because of the problem, one of the sources
said.
Kimanis crude production has fallen to about 117,000 barrels
per day (bpd) and the volume of each cargo loading in October
has also been trimmed, another of the sources said.
The outage will tighten Asia's sweet crude supplies, which
could support prices for similar exports from Vietnam and the
Atlantic Basin, traders said.
Shell declined to comment. Petroleum Brunei and Malaysia's
state energy firm Petronas did not respond to requests for
comment.
A leak was recently discovered at a compressor unit at the
Gumusut-Kakap oilfield off Sabah in East Malaysia, which had
been shut in August for maintenance, the second source said.
The unit, which was supposed to resume operations this
month, will remain shut until repair works are carried out in
November, he said.
The loading dates for cargoes originally scheduled to be
exported from the end of September to November have also been
pushed back by three to 12 days, he added.
Other stakeholders for Kimanis production include
Indonesia's Pertamina, Thailand's PTTEP
and ConocoPhillips.
Shell operates the two deepwater fields, Gumusut-Kakap and
Malikai off the coast of Sabah, capable of producing 170,000 bpd
of Kimanis crude at peak.
Production of Kimanis crude has been falling in recent years
but still accounts for the bulk of Malaysia's exports.
(Reporting by Florence Tan
Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Richard Pullin and David
Goodman
)
