No significant hydrocarbon shows were encountered in the primary objective of Mubadala Petroleum’s second exploration well at the G1/48 Manora oil field located in the Northern Gulf of Thailand. Following the second failure to find hydrocarbons, Mubadala has given up on drilling the third well in the program.
Mubadala is the operator of the G1/48 license and Tap Oil is its partner with a 30% working interest.
Manora JV partners approved a three-well exploration drilling program, plus a contingent appraisal sidetrack well, at the G1/48 at the end of October 2019. The exploration wells, in order of drilling, are Inthanin-1, Yothaka East-1, and Krissana-1.
The partners kicked off the three-well campaign with the Inthanin-1 exploration well earlier in November. The Inthanin-1 well spudded on November 20, 2019, and reached a total depth of 2528m on November 24, 2019. No significant hydrocarbon shows were encountered at the first well.
Following the Inthanin-1 well, the Ensco 115 jack-up drilling rig moved to drill the Yothaka East-1 well.
Tap Oil reported on Thursday that the Yothaka East-1 well spudded on November 28 and reached a total measured depth of 3,367m on December 3. This was drilled and logged ahead of schedule and budget.
According to Tap, target objectives in the well were intersected within 17m of pre-drill prognosed depths. No significant shows were encountered while drilling the well-developed 400 and 500 series fluvial sands which were a primary objective in the well.
The 600 series lacustrine sands, also a primary objective section, were thinner than anticipated with 2 to 3m of net oil pay identified on logs and in cuttings while drilling. The sands correlate with the 620 series sands that are a major producer in the Manora Oil Field, 3.2km to the North West.
Pressure data indicates the 620 series lacustrine sands at Yothaka East-1 are in pressure communication with Manora via the aquifer.
Mubadala gives up on third well
Following the second well, the joint venture partners have made a revised forward plan.
Namely, the 620 series sands will be immediately appraised via a side track from Yothaka East to a downdip location 1.0 km to the north of the current down hole location. The objective of the appraisal well is to identify the vertical extent of the oil column and the interpreted thickening of the sands to the North and West towards Manora. The cost of the side track is estimated at $0.39 million net to Tap.
In the event that a commercial resource is delineated, the development plan would be a single well from the Manora platform by extended reach drilling.
The Krissana exploration prospect, immediately east of Yothaka East, will now not be drilled given the lack of show in the fluvial sequence (400 and 500 series sands) in Yothaka East that were a primary objective at Krissana.
The current drilling operation is setting cement plugs in the Yothaka East-1 well and preparing to side track to the Yothaka East-2 location 1.0 km to the north.