Shell is underway with the drilling of production wells on the?deepwater Malikai oil field development offshore Malaysia.

The development entails 17 wells drilled from the 23,500 tonne Tension Leg Platform (TLP) production facility, the first to be fabricated and installed off Malaysia. Norwegian company Norshore’s first drilling and intervention vessel, Norshore Atlantic, has a contract with Sabah Shell Petroleum Co. that involves batch drilling eight top holes in 475?m (1,558 ft) of water and which is expected to last between 75-130 days.

This is the vessel’s second contract, following its initial one working on two subsea wells on the Langa field offshore Indonesia.

Malikai lies 100 km offshore Sabah, Malaysia within Block?G, and is operated by Sabah Shell Petroleum Co., which holds 35% along with partner ConocoPhillips (35%) and Petronas Carigali (30%).