UNOCAL KEEPS SE ASIA FOCUS ON THAILAND, REACHES 2 TCF MARK THERE

Unocal Corp. is keeping its South.east Asia focus mainly on Thailand, where the company just delivered its 2 trillionth cu ft of natural gas from fields in the Gulf of Thailand. Unocal plans to spend $234 million on exploration and production in Southeast Asia in 1994 out of its total capital budget for the year of $1.46 billion. Of total E&P outlays slated for Southeast Asia, Unocal wig spend $200 million on the Gulf of Thailand. That's an increase of $50 million from 1993 levels. That

March 21, 1994

3 min read

Unocal Corp. is keeping its South.east Asia focus mainly on Thailand, where the company just delivered its 2 trillionth cu ft of natural gas from fields in the Gulf of Thailand.

Unocal plans to spend $234 million on exploration and production in Southeast Asia in 1994 out of its total capital budget for the year of $1.46 billion.

Of total E&P outlays slated for Southeast Asia, Unocal wig spend $200 million on the Gulf of Thailand. That's an increase of $50 million from 1993 levels. That compares with an 18% increase in Unocal's overall non-U.S. E&P budget for 1994 from a year ago.

In all, Unocal Thailand and its partners wig spend a combined $280 million on offshore gas development this year.

Unocal's current Gulf of Thailand emphasis is on further development of Jakrawan, its seventh producing field in the prolific gas prone basin. Partners in Jakrawan are Mitsui Oil Exporation Co. and PTT Exploration & Production Public Co. Ltd. (Pttep). Longer term, Unocal plans to develop Pailin field on Block 12127 south of Erawan gas field, the gulf's mainstay. Unocal is operator of the block in partnership with Pttep, Amerada Hess Corp., and Motodeco.

Another Unocal affiliate, Unocal Petroleum, is exploring for oil and gas onshore in the Khorat Plateau region of Northeast. Thailand.

PRODUCTION MILESTONE

Unocal late last month delivered its 2 trillionth cu ft of gas produced in the Gulf of Thailand to Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT).

The company produced an average 747 MMcfd of gas and 27,215 b/d of condensate from Erawan, Satun, Platung, Funan, Baanpot, Surat, and jakrawan fields in the gulf.

Unocal started production in the ,gulf in 1981 from Erawan gas field. It produced its 1 trillionth cu ft in the gulf in February 1990. Gas supplied from Unocal fields in the gulf fuels as much as 40% of Thailand's electrical power needs.

Developing the Gulf of Thailand's gas fields caused Unocal to focus sharply on improving drilling efficiencies.

"Producing gas from the small, isolated reservoirs in the Gulf of Thailand forced us to drill hundreds more. wells than we anticipated"' said Unocal Thailand Pres. Brian Marcotte. "We had to become an even more efficient, low cost gas producer."

In 1992, Unocal required an average, 68 only 11 days to drill and complete a well in the Gulf of Thailand, compared with an average 68 days in 1980. The company also has reduced drilling costs there as well.

To date, Unocal and partners have spent more than $3.6 billion developing gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand.