[Thailand] Manora - Manora Princess FSO

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Manora field

In November 2014, the Manora oil field, located in the Northern Gulf of Thailand in the G1/48 concession, started production. Mubadala Energy is the operator and holds a 70-percent participating interest. The field was discovered in 2009 and safely taken from appraisal, through to development and into production. The facilities include a Wellhead Processing Platform and a Floating Storage and Offloading vessel. The cumulative production has exceeded 20 million barrels to date.

The field is located within the G1/48 concession, approximately 80km offshore Thailand, in 44m of water depth.

According to partner Tap Oil Ltd., the flow from the two wells is online and is being progressively ramped-up from an initial combined rate of 2200 b/d (gross). Flow will begin to the floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) once production passes 5000b/d (gross).

The joint venture anticipates that the platform will ramp up to 15,000b/d at peak production during 1Q 2015. Mubadala says proved and probable reserves contained in Manora’s primary reservoir, and recoverable by natural depletion, are estimated to be about 20MMbbl (gross). Water injection will be implemented from start-up and once its effectiveness has been confirmed by enhanced production performance, more reserves will be added.

First oil from Manora follows the hook-up and commissioning phase and parallel operations drilling of the first four of 10 production wells. The Thai-fabricated facilities include a wellhead processing platform, with water injection facilities to maximize oil recovery, connected using subsea pipelines to the FSO.

The plan for the US$300 million Manora development includes up to 10 production wells and five injection wells in the main reservoir sequence.

Tap Oil says drilling is continuing on schedule and that MNA-03 and MNA-05 have been handed over to production. An additional five surface holes have been batch drilled and cased (MNA-04, MNA-06, MNA-07, MNA-08 and MNA-10), and the intermediate drilling phase of the MNA-06 production well is in progress.

Mubadala Petroleum is the operator of G1/48 with a 60% interest with partners Tap Oil (30%) and Northern Gulf Petroleum (10%).

In early November, Mubadala completed drilling at the MNA-05 development well and began drilling at the MNA-07 and MNA-08 wells on the Manora field using the Atwood Orca jackup rig. In October, the fourth and fifth wells in the program were drilled.

Originally discovered in 2009, Manora opened up a new oil play in the northern Gulf of Thailand. The field was further appraised by drilling three wells, and field development was sanctioned in July 2012. The commercial life of the field is projected to exceed 10 years.

In addition to Manora, Mubadala is in the process of developing the Nong Yao oil discovery in concession G11/48 with first oil expected by mid-2015. By that time, the company says that production from the three operated fields will more than double from current rates. Its Jasmine field has already produced more than 50MMbbl, exceeding the 7MMbbl of recoverable reserves underpinning the original project sanction in 2004.