Canada-based oil and gas company Valeura Energy has informed that the Nong Yao C extension, which started production in mid-August 2024, boosted the output from Nong Yao field offshore Thailand for 66%.
In early August 2024, Valeura Energy completed drilling operations on the Nong Yao C extension, at its 90% working interest Nong Yao field.
The drilling operations at the Nong Yao C extension included six planned horizontal development wells, a water injection well and an additional successful appraisal well.
The first wells were brought onstream on August 15, 2024, with the remaining wells following shortly thereafter. The additional seventh well was also completed as a producer and is onstream.
The Nong Yao C development has yielded a 66% increase in output from Nong Yao, with recent production rates averaging 11.6 mbbls/d during the last seven days of the third quarter of 2024, as compared to 7.0 mbbls/d during the week just prior to starting Nong Yao C, considering Valeura’s working interest share, the company informed.
“From an operational perspective, the Nong Yao C drilling program exceeded expectations, with total costs coming in approximately 25% below budget, owing largely to faster drilling execution, while still adhering to the company’s strict standards for safe operations,” Valeura said.
Valeura’s Gulf of Thailand Fields Buzzing with Activity
Just prior to the start of third quarter of 2024, Valeura implemented a precautionary suspension of production operations at its 100%-owned Wassana field to ensure a safe situation while the company investigated a potential risk to the production facility’s structural integrity.
The inspection and analysis confirmed that the production facility remains in a safe operating condition, and production resumed in the first week of August 2024.
At Jasmine field, Valeura drilled two horizontal infill development wells on the Jasmine A facility starting in late August 2024, with both wells achieving their planned objectives.
The 41H well encountered 1,982 feet of net oil pay within a reservoir compartment full to base with no apparent bottom aquifer. The 42H well encountered 1,555 feet of net mixed-phase/oil pay. Both wells were completed and brought online as producers, together delivering oil at an initial (three-day average) rate of 1,050 bbls/d (before royalties).
Drilling operations have continued to progress efficiently, Valeura noted.
Following the drilling of the two Jasmine infill wells, the company’s contracted drilling rig was demobilized in order to conduct scheduled inspection and maintenance work in dry dock. The rig has just returned to the Jasmine field to resume infill development drilling, with three infill wells currently planned.
For the Manora field, the company has revised its work program to include more drilling than originally envisaged, with no addition to its capital budget as a result of faster-than-planned drilling operations throughout 2024 to date.
Valeura expects to mobilize the drilling rig to its 70%-owned Manora field before the end of 2024, where it will begin a planned five-well infill drilling and appraisal program. In the meantime, production operations utilizing the existing well stock at Manora are progressing on plan.
“I am pleased to share preliminary details of our third quarter 2024 performance, which illustrates both the financial resilience and the organic growth potential of our portfolio.
“Our financial performance has been strong. We recorded gross revenue of $139 million during the quarter on the back of 1.8 million bbls of oil sold. We closed out the quarter with a cash balance of $156 million and no debt, and 1.2 million bbls of oil inventory. Two liftings totalling 0.51 million bbls occurred just after the end of the quarter, and will be recorded as revenue in the fourth quarter.
“From an operations perspective, our third quarter performance demonstrates the value of pursuing organic developments within our portfolio, underscored by our Nong Yao C development, which began bolstering production rates from mid-August onward. The average working interest share oil production for the month of September was 26.4 mbbls/d (before royalties), an increase of 23% over second quarter 2024 average production.
“With continued smooth production operations across the portfolio we forecast rates remaining in the 25 mbbls/d range for the remainder of 2024, in keeping with our full year guidance expectations,” said Sean Guest, President and CEO of Valeura.