It's been three months since they halted the production, don't know how long is this still gonna take

The long awaited Ophir production is facing problems

The efforts of the co-owners of the Ophir shallow-water oilfield in Malaysia to restore production have not been successful, writes Russell Searancke.

The field was shut in on 8 January this year after just three months of production to address facilities constraints identified during commissioning.

However a power fault prevented a production restart.

Nitrogen lifting operations, which began in late March on the first well Ophir A-1 to restore production, were "significantly impacted" by the weather and deck space limitations, said co-owner Octanex.

Ultimately though, the nitrogen operations were unsuccessful in restarting production, and the joint venture owners are "discussing the next steps for the field with Petronas".