Petronas’ Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM) is set on Tuesday to unveil this year’s offering of exploration acreage and development assets.

Malaysia Bid Round (MBR) 2024 with the tag of ‘transforming your future with advantaged energy’ is expected to comprise five exploration blocks — three offshore Peninsular Malaysia and two offshore Sabah – and five discovered resources opportunity (DRO) clusters.

For MBR 2024, there will be two DRO clusters off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia and three DRO clusters offshore Sabah, East Malaysia.

Bids for all the assets on offer are due to be submitted by 1 August, MPM intends to evaluate the bids during August and September with the aim of announcing the production sharing contract winners in October and signing the PSCs in December 2024.

Petronas MPM last October introduced MBR+, which is intended to accelerate companies’ participation in DRO opportunities. The Petronas division is now evaluating applications for five DRO clusters that it had offered on 31 October 2023 — separate from the main MBR 2023, which was launched last February.

The bid deadline for the MBR+ assets — three DRO clusters offshore Peninsular Malaysia and two DRO clusters (DEWA Complex and Ketapu) offshore Sarawak, East Malaysia — was 15 January. For these assets, MPM envisages awarding the PSCs in April or May and signing the PSCs in June this year.

MBR 2024 also offers prospective bidders access to new multi-client reprocessed seismic data and potential new plays in Peninsular Malaysia basins.