According to consultancy Rystad Energy, AAL alone holds 20% of all the oil that is expected to be sanctioned in the Asia Pacific region during 2017: 107 million barrels of oil equivalent of a total 512MMboe.

 

For Indonesia, AAL is important, as the Norwegian consultancy sees the suspended OPEC member's production declining to the end of the decade, and development of the NW Natuna Sea field would help mitigate this decline.

 

AAL is one of several projects in the region that has been delayed due to the low oil price environment. 

 

Other delayed projects include Repsol's CRD FPSO project in Vietnam (Pan Pacific 5%), as well as a Petronas' enhanced oil recovery project in Baram Delta, offshore Malaysia. 

 

CRD is roughly half the size of AAL, accounting for 12% of 2017 FID volumes.

 

"Projects such as AAL or CRD could already have been approved had prices not tanked," Rystad senior analyst Readul Islam said.

 

"The downside risk is that projects expecting 2017 approvals could have their FIDs sliding into 2018 due to a few months of turbulence."

 

Islam said KrisEnergy's pioneering Apsara project offshore Cambodia was one that looked as if it would be delayed by its operators, as KrisEnergy needed to emerge from debt restructuring.

 

Apsara, which KrisEnergy has indicated was important to its future, is 95%-owned by the Singaporean company and sits in the Khmer Basin in the Gulf of Thailand. 

 

The 24-well development has been under consideration since 2010, targeting an initial 10,000bopd. 

 

KrisEnergy secured an increased interest in Block A from Chevron Corporation, MOECO Cambodia and GS Energy last year. 

 

The company has described Block A as being an area with significant potential, with a further six structural trends mapped that could support up to nine platforms.

 

Rystad said other projects expected for FID this year that may slip into 2018 include AWE and Origin Energy's Waitsia gas development in the Perth Basin.

 

It believes the second phase is likely to slip into 2018 despite recent positive buzz, particularly from potential gas buyers.

 

"Positive appraisal results and increasing momentum in signing gas sales agreements could tip the sanction back into 2017", Islam said.

 

Both AAL and Waitsia have been placed into Santos and Origin Energy's spin-out vehicles.

 

Rystad said Mubadala Petroleum's Pegaga gas project in the Sarawak waters of Malaysia was also a candidate for development in 2017 or 2018. 

 

AWE shares last traded at 55 cents while Pan Pacific, which yesterday agreed to sell its 15% interest in New Zealand's Tui Area fields, traded at 2.8c.