French oil company Total has signed a Deed of Amendment (DOA) with Petroleum Brunei on the deepwater Block CA-1, previously known as Brunei Block J.
The DOA amends the original production sharing contract of Block J signed in 2003 and allows Petronas Carigali Overseas and Murphy Oil subsidiary Canam Brunei to join the existing consortium.
With the DOA in place, Total will remain the operator with a 54% interest, alongside partners BHP Billiton, Hess, Petronas Carigali Overseas and Murphy Oil.
The Deepwater Block CA-1 covers an area of more than 5,850sq km in the deepwater areas of Brunei in water depths ranging from 1,000m to 2,750m.
Total Exploration & Production senior vice president of Geosciences Marc Blaizot said that this agreement will enable the exploration operations to resume on this block and a drilling campaign to start within a short period of time based on the seismic studies already performed.