We created the moment

When I moved to Bandar Seri Begawan, Pierre Desvoyes was still there but was replaced by Louis Heuzé in February 2007. The Bruneian subsidiary at that time was still a smaII one and I have memories of a very cosy environment with a small but great team. 

We were confronted with all aspects of the operations and as a result, the job was very diverse and exciting. The professional environment was excellent. With considerable exploration potential in the vicinity of the Maharaja Lela Jamalulalam field, we embarked on an exploration campaign in 2000. One of the challenging projects was the drilling of MLJ2-06, where we successfully explored the deeper HP/HT potential. With a specific design, under the management of Jean-Mathieu Pithioud, we were able to develop the 10k reservoirs from the existing platform. 

Bearing in mind the expiry of the Gas Supply Agreement and the possibility to increase our future production levels, exploration continued towards the promising ML-South area. Together with Per Grinde, Dave Miller, Emmanuel Depierrefeu and Khaled Kouki, we "created the moment' and defined a development plan vision, resulting in an exploration campaign starting with the successful ML-4: the rest is history! 

Another achievement which stands out was the flash gas compressor project with the objective to reduce the gas flaring at OPP in Lumut. I am sure that many can remember the black smoke it created, which could be seen from afar. This project improved our image and reduced our environmental footprint, however, as it turned out, it also improved the heating value of the sales gas! 

Brunei has a special place in my heart because of the friendly people, the proximity to some of the world’s best holiday destinations and the memories of diving and sailing at the Yachtclub in Serasa, where Yannick Marcillat was a great sailing teacher to my kids!