The UK supermajor has sanctioned a Rosmari-Marjoram project development designed to produce 800 million cubic feet per day of gas, with start-up targeted for 2026, it confirmed on Monday.

Rosmari and Marjoram are deep-water sour gas fields discovered in 2014. Their development comprises a subsea tie-back, an unmanned wellhead platform, a 207-kilometre pipeline to shore and an onshore gas plant at Bintulu.

Solar powered

The Rosmari-Marjoram development will be primarily powered by renewable energy — the offshore platform will use power from 240 solar panels, while the onshore plant will be connected to the Sarawak grid system, which is supplied mainly from hydroelectric plants.

Shell said the “Rosmari-Marjoram development is one of the strategic projects to ensure a sustained gas supply to the Petronas LNG Complex”.

“The project comprises a remotely operated offshore platform and onshore gas plant, with infrastructure that includes one of the longest sour wet gas offshore pipelines in the world stretching more than 200 kilometres,” the supermajor said.

The Rosmari and Marjoram fields lie 220 kilometres off the coast of Bintulu, East Malaysia.

South Korean giant Samsung Engineering has already won the $680 million engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract for the onshore gas plant for Rosmari-Marjoram.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s two leading offshore contractors — Sapura Energy and Malaysia Marine & Heavy Engineering — are understood to be among the key contenders to build and install the project’s 8000-tonne wellhead platform.

Perunding Ranhill Worley — the Malaysian subsidiary of Australian engineering house Worley — performed the front-end engineering and design work and pre-FEED work for the offshore scope of the Rosmari-Marjoram project.

The sour gas fields are located on the Block SK 318 production sharing contract.

Reliable supply

Shell Upstream director Zoe Yujnovich said: “Rosmari-Marjoram will help to deliver a secure and reliable supply of energy, responsibly and efficiently”.

Subsidiary Sarawak Shell operates Rosmari-Marjoram with an 80% stake and Malaysia’s national upstream company Petronas Carigali has the remaining 20% interest.

Ivan Tan, senior vice president of upstream Malaysia at Shell, added the “support and partnership from Petronas and the Government of Sarawak are critical” to achieving the milestone with Rosmari-Marjoram.

“Shell has a long and proud history in Sarawak and we look forward to contribute further to Sarawak and Malaysia’s economic growth through investments in competitive and resilient projects,” he said.