Malaysia's first deepwater field is producing less than expected due to sand in the oil although output should recover by this year, the Business Times reported on Wednesday, citing its operator Murphy Oil Corp .
"The workover programme should be completed this year and production rates back to the planned level," a Murphy spokesman was quoted as saying.
"We have three well shut-ins due to fines migration coming through the sandscreens and being produced with the oil. It is important to keep the fines materials out of the surface process equipment."
Murphy was not immediately available for comment.
Murphy's Kikeh field offshore Malaysia's Borneo state of Sabah has a current gross production of around 52,000 barrels of oil per day. The report did not say how much production had dropped to.
The shutting in of three oil wells at the Kikeh field has seen crude oil exports fall 11.5 percent in the first quarter, local media quoted a government minister as saying this week.
The Kikeh discovery is the first deepwater discovery in the Southeast Asian country, which has now embarked on a drive to boost deepwater oil production and reverse flagging domestic production.
Located in almost 4,400 feet of water, the Kikeh Field lies in the southern part of Block K. Murphy has an 80 percent working interest in Blocks K and H with a combined cover over six million acres since 2002.
Petronas Carigali, a wholly owned exploration and production arm of Petronas , holds the remaining 20 percent.