Activity offshore Myanmar is starting to increase, with a recent drilling contract announced and CGG opening a subsurface imaging centre in the southeast Asian country, formerly known as Burma.
Today, UMW Oil & Gas Corporation subsidiary UMW Offshore Drilling (UOD) announced it had been awarded a contract with Thailand's PTTEP International to provide drilling rig services for the Block M-3 appraisal drilling campaign 2014, offshore Myanmar.
Last week, CGG said it had opened a subsurface imaging center in capital Yangon. Swire Oilfield Services has also been expanding its operations in Myanmar, developing an operating base in the country.
A recent World Economic Forum report said: "Myanmar has the potential to emerge as southeast Asia’s next frontier." The country recently emerged from decades of sanction-driven isolation and held a major offshore licensing round, with prefered bidders announced in March.
Read more: Southeast Asia's next frontier
Under its contract with PTTEP, UOD will supply the UMW NAGA 5, its latest jackup drilling rig, which is currently under a drilling contract in the Philippines with NIDO Petroleum, for the project.
Image: UOD's UMW NAGA 3 jackup.
The contract is for five firm wells, (about 250 days, excluding mobilization and demobilization), and may be extended for one optional well). The contract is worth about US$51.3 million for the firm wells. The rig is expected to be mobilized to Myanmar in August.
UMW-OG President Rohaizad Darus said: “Myanmar is becoming active in developing its oil and gas potentials with the award of 20 new exploration licenses recently. This augurs well with our regional expansion plans of opening up and developing new markets. The contract for UMW NAGA 5 is the second contract we secured in Myanmar after the contract for our hydraulic workover unit, UMW GAIT 6, which was secured in November last year. We hope this will help us to build a firmer footing in Myanmar market in the future."
UMW NAGA 5 is a premium jackup drilling rig and is capable of operating in water depths of up to 400ft (ca.125m) and drilling to a total depth of 30,000ft (ca.9144m) subsea. The rig was delivered by KEPPEL FELS on 29 April 2014 and started its maiden work for NIDO in early May.
UMW-OG is continuing to expand both domestically and regionally with another three premium jackup drilling rigs on order, UMW NAGA 6, UMW NAGA 7, and UMW NAGA 8, which have scheduled deliveries in September 2014, December 2014, and September 2015, respectively. The company has also established UMW-INSTEP Drilling Academy, which started operation in April this year to provide training and development of skilled personnel for the drilling industry.
Rohaizad added: “We are happy that the demand continues to be strong for our new fleet of jackup drilling rigs. Last week, UMW NAGA 7, which is still under construction in China, has been awarded a contract by Frontier Oil for work in the Philipines early next year. We are also seeing a number of opportunities for UMW NAGA 6 and UMW NAGA 8 and are currently working towards getting contracts for those both in Malaysia and regionally."
At present, all UMWOG drilling rigs are contracted out in Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philipines. The company is currently in the various stage of bidding for its upcoming new drilling rigs.
Read more: CGG opens Myanmar subsurface imaging center
Read more: Swire Oilfield expands in southeast Asia
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