Five wells down, more to go for Borr Drilling’s jack-up off Thailand

Canada-based oil and gas company Valeura Energy has completed an infill drilling campaign at an oil field in the Gulf of Thailand using Borr Drilling’s jack-up rig.

Valeura has finalized its five-well drilling campaign at the Manora oil field in license G1/48 that kicked off in late November 2024. The Canadian firm has a 70% interest in the field, which produces medium-weight sweet crude oil from reservoirs of Miocene age, while the remaining 30% is held by Avenir Energy.

The wells were drilled using Borr Drilling’s 2013-built Mist jack-up rig. The rig is expected to stay in Thailand until August 2026 thanks to an extension secured in November 2024, which is when the Canadian firm’s previous five-well drilling campaign started.

According to Valeura, its working interest share oil production before royalties has now increased from 2,144 bbls/d, which was the average for December 2024, to 2,866 bbls/d for the last 14-day period. The appraisal objectives of the campaign have also led to between three and five potential future drilling targets, which the Canadian player plans to further evaluate for inclusion in a future drilling program.

Dr. Sean Guest, President and CEO of Valeura, commented: “Our most recent drilling at Manora has both increased oil production rates and successfully appraised additional targets which will form the basis of future infill development drilling. While the Manora field accounts for only about 10% of our year-to-date production, it is an excellent example of the potential for Gulf of Thailand fields to add many years of economic field life through targeted ongoing activity.”

According to Guest, his firm’s plan for 2025 includes pursuing drilling operations across its portfolio to continue adding reserves year-on-year to support continued cash flow generation.

The Manora field is located in the Kra basin in the northern Gulf of Thailand. While the current end-of-life for the 2013-discovered field is 2028, new developments, cost reductions, and exploration are planned to extend its production beyond 2030.

Three production-oriented infill development wells and two appraisal wells were drilled as part of the latest campaign, Valeura stated. The A34 well was drilled for infill development targets within the deep 600-series sands in the field’s eastern fault block. The well has been completed as a multi-zone comingled producer.

The horizontal A38 well was also drilled into the eastern fault block, to develop the shallower 300-series sands. It was completed as a producer, with the well design featuring a downhole autonomous inflow control device (ICD) to manage water vs oil production. The impact of this and ICDs in other fields is being monitored by the company to optimize the technology’s application across its portfolio.

Next, the A36 well targeted sands across several known producing intervals in the field’s main fault block and has been completed as a multi-zone infill development well. Only the deepest targets are currently producing, which the Canadian player says is normal in multi-zone wells, while the shallower zones will be brought on production later.

The A35 well appraised several zones of interest within the shallower 300-series sands. Since this appraisal well will not be used as a producer, it has been plugged and abandoned. However, the results encountered have indicated the potential for three further development wells within this reservoir section, which will be further studied and modeled for inclusion in future development drilling.

Finally, the horizontal A37 well was drilled as a combination appraisal and development well.  The well encountered an appraisal target in the 500-series sands described as encouraging by Valeura, which is now being matured for inclusion in a future campaign. The well’s development target, within the deeper 600-series sands, was completed as a producer.

Following the completion of the Manora drilling campaign, Borr Drilling’s Misto rig has moved to license B5/27, in which Valeura holds a 100% operated interest. A drilling program on the Jasmine C wellhead platform is underway at the field.

In November 2024, Valeura completed an internal restructuring of its Thailand-based subsidiaries to optimize the financial and operational aspects of its Gulf of Thailand assets. Thanks to the restructuring, its subsidiary got working interests in the Nong Yao, Manora, and Wassana fields, whereas it previously only had an interest in the latter.