Borr Drilling rig begins another five-well campaign at next field on its drilling list

Canada-based oil and gas company Valeura Energy has achieved an oil production boost following a five-well infill drilling program at a field off the coast of Thailand. Encouraged by these results, the firm has prolonged the assignment for Borr Drilling’s jack-up rig, which undertook these drilling operations. The mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) has now moved to another field to drill five more wells.

Borr Drilling disclosed in November 2024 that Valuera extended the Mist jack-up rig’s stay in Thailand until August 2026. Thanks to the previous 12-month contract extension, the jack-up was expected to be occupied through August 2025.

After wrapping up a four-well infill drilling campaign at its Nong Yao oil field in the Gulf of Thailand with the same rig, the MODU was mobilized to the Wassana field to drill three production-oriented development wells, before returning to Nong Yao in Q1 2024 to begin the Nong Yao C drilling campaign.

The first oil production from the asset was announced in August 2024. The MOPU TSeven Shirley, representing T7 Global’s first foray into Thai waters, serves as the wellhead production platform for Valeura’s Nong Yao C field. 

While confirming the completion of an infill drilling campaign at the Jasmine field in license B5/27 offshore Gulf of Thailand, the Canadian player explained that the five-well program entailed two infill development wells on the Jasmine A platform, wrapped up in September 2024, and three more such wells on the Jasmine D platform, which have been brought online as producers while also appraising several additional reservoir intervals.

Dr. Sean Guest, Valeura’s President and CEO, commented: “I am very pleased with our drilling performance at Jasmine, which has resulted in aggregate oil production rates of nearly 10,000 bbls/d (before royalties) over the last seven days. Maintaining oil production at this asset is key to generating ongoing cashflow from our portfolio. 

“In addition, the fact that we continue to see appraisal successes at this relatively mature field bodes well for our objective to further extend the economic life of the asset. We expect the results of these wells, and the recent production rates to be considered as part of our year-end reserves assessment, and to support our target of achieving more than a 100% reserves replacement ratio.” 

Furthermore, the JSD-42 well evaluated several secondary appraisal targets, which are said to have resulted in five further zones being completed as future-producing reservoirs, and also encountered several additional oil-bearing intervals that may be the subject of further infill development drilling in due course.

With all five wells completed as producers and online, aggregate oil production from the field has averaged 9,801 bbls/d before royalties over the period November 19-25, 2024, an increase of 26% from rates before the new wells came online when 7,764 bbls/d was recorded in the interval covering September 6-12, 2024.

Following the move to the Manora field on license G1/48, where the Canadian firm has a 70% working interest, Borr Drilling’s rig has started operations on its new five-well infill drilling program, encompassing three production-oriented wells and two appraisals. The 2013-built Mist rig is of Keppel FELS Super B Bigfoot Class design.