Thai Shell Exploration & Production is pressing exploration in Thailand despite recent disappointments there.
The company is conducting a 650 Line km seismic survey in Northeast Thailand's Khorat basin that is expected to take 3 months and cost $4 million. Areas targeted are Kalasin, Roi Et, and Mukdahan.
That follows two dry holes drilled in the Sakhon Nakhon and Kalasin areas on its Khorat concession at a combined cost of about $12 million. Thai Shell Managing Director Jean Pierre Spicher noted the well results indicated the basin is prospective for natural gas.
Meantime, Thai Shell commenced a 100 sq km 3D seismic survey on its S1 concession in Phitsanulok province to prove more oil reserves in the Sirikit field area.
The company currently is pressing a $35 million waterflood of Sirikit to extend the field's current plateau production of 23,000 b/d. About half the estimated 134 million bbl of oil reserves at Sirikit has been produced since 1983. Shell hopes to keep the field producing another 20 years.
In the Gulf of Thailand, Thai Shell has resumed production from Nang Nuan oil field with no expectation of profit from the $95 million venture and a notion to cut its losses there. The marginal field, about 35 km of Chumphon coast, resumed production late last year after a 5 year hiatus.
Shell is working to boost Nang Nuan output to 8,000 b/d from 5,000 b/d, likely to be the peak for the single well field, Spicher said. The field will remain in production for 3 months and then be shut in for 6 months. Spicher said temporary shut-in is warranted by the field's geological complexity to allow crude oil to migrate into the reservoir while avoiding water coning.
Production comes from Nang Nuan B-01, about 6 km north of the field's first producer, Nang Nuan A-01, about 30 km off Chumphon, abandoned after 6 months of production because of water coning. B-01 reserves are pegged at 3.5 million bbl.
The $95 million outlay covers drilling of nine wells and oil production facilities on Block B6/27, which originally covered a total area of 7,646 sq km.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
