A fire at an oil platform operated by Petronas Carigali, a unit of Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas , is expected to have little impact on the country's exports of Tapis crude, trade sources said today.
The Bekok C platform, located 200km off the coast of Terengganu, is one of several fields that produces the country's flagship grade Tapis, they said.
Petronas is expected to lose around 100 barrels a month of the light sweet crude for export due to the fire, one of the sources said, but how long this might continue is not clear.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment.
Tapis output is at around 190,000 bpd with most kept for refining by equity producers ExxonMobil and Petronas, leaving little for the spot market.
The fire at Bekok C started just after midnight early yesterday morning and injured six out of the 108 personnel on board.
"It's one of the fields linked to Tapis production, but it's not a major field," the source said.
A second source said there was no disruption in supply as the incident occurred during a planned maintenance.
Petronas was likely to ramp up output from other platforms while Bekok C is under repair, he said.
The company will start marketing February spot cargoes later today after it sold a Tapis crude cargo through tender at around US$$5 a barrel above Tapis APPI.
