BANGKOK�Royal Dutch/Shell Group plans to spend 80% more this year on development in Thailand than it did in 2000.
Thai Shell Exploration & Production Co., an affiliate of the Anglo-Dutch oil group, plans to spend up to $73 million in 2001.
The increase reflects the company's effort to sustain crude oil output from the 15-year-old Sirikit field in the northern province of Kamphaeng Phet and to revive oil production from a Gulf of Thailand field that was shut in 4 years ago.
Luechai Wongsirasawad, deputy executive director of Thai Shell, said $65 million will be spent to sustain Sirikit production at 24,000-25,000 b/d of oil. About $35 million of that will be spent on oil production facilities, including a waterflood system. And $30 million would be used to drill 28 development wells in Sirikit as well as two wildcats outside the Sirikit production area.
In 2000, Thai Shell spent $40 million to drill 25 development wells in the Sirikit structure.
At the same time, Thai Shell decided to allocate about $8 million to drill two wells in its oil-bearing B6/27 concession block, Gulf of Thailand, beginning around Marchl.
The wells will be drilled back to back in Nang Nuan, a field off southern Thailand's Chumphon coast that produced 4.25 million bbl of oil before excessive water intrusion forced it to halt production in January 1997.
Thai Shell will re-enter Nang Nuan B01, the production well, and drill an exploration well in the same structure.
The company hopes to resume oil production from the reentered well at 10,000 to 20,000 b/d in the third quarter. Nang Nuan B01's peak production was 12,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Nov. 20, 2000).
