With one 271-day job done, Singaporean player’s rig preps for new Gulf of Thailand campaign

August 27, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

Singapore’s tender-assisted drilling provider Energy Drilling, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cyprus-headquartered SED Energy Holdings, has finished a drilling campaign in the Gulf of Thailand undertaken on behalf of Carigali-PTTEPI Operating Company (CPOC), a joint venture between PETRONAS Carigali and PTTEP International Limited (PTTEPI).

As disclosed, the JENGKA-D (JKD) drilling campaign, carried out using the T-16 rig, forms part of the Phase-6 Development at the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (MTJDA).

With simultaneous operations conducted on the JKD wellhead platform, the T-16 drilled a total of 59,539 meters over 271 days of continuous operation. The unit is now rigging up on the JENGKA-C (JKC) platform.

The 2013-built T-16 rig is designed for development drilling involving multiple well slots on fixed wellhead platforms in up to 6,000 feet, or 1,828 meters, of water with pre-laid mooring. Based on information on Energy Drilling’s website, the rig has been contracted until Q4 2026 by CPOOC.

Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE) secured an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract with CPOC in 2023 for JKC and JKD and three other platforms, Andalas C, D, and E (ADC, ADD, ADE).

MTJDA is an area of overlapping continental shelf claimed by Malaysia and Thailand, located in the Gulf of Thailand. The Governments of Malaysia and Thailand agreed in 1979 to jointly explore and exploit this area.

The area consists of blocks A-18, B-17 & C-19, and B-17-01. The latter produces approximately 300 mmscfd of natural gas, which is supplied to both countries.

Another rig from Energy Drilling’s fleet, the 2014-built EDrill-2 rig, was picked by PTTEP to carry out an offshore drilling campaign last month.