Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Perth, has made a natural gas discovery offshore Myanmar with its first well, Shwe Yee Htun-1 (previously known as Saung-1).
Gas indications were found over a 129-m interval and Woodside has designated 15 m of this zone as net pay.
The well, in the Rakhine basin, was first drilled to its original planned depth of 4,810 m before being deepened to 5,306 m.
Further analysis will now be undertaken to evaluate the full potential, but Woodside has said the find de-risks a number of leads in the region.
The well is on the A-6 block where it is operator for local company MPRL and Total SA, a JV that Woodside entered in December 2012.
The company has interests in six large offshore permits in Myanmar covering a total of 46,000 sq km.
The next well will be Tha Lim-1 on Block AD-7, operated by South Korea’s Daewoo International.
Myanmar has been opened up for exploration following the political reforms of 2011 and subsequent lifting of European Union and US sanctions, enabling international companies to reenter the region.
Drilling programs began in 2014. The country is estimated to contain 3.2 billion bbl of oil and 18 tcf of gas with potential for vastly greater amounts, thus attracting most of the world’s major players.
