Offshore staff
HOUSTON -- Coastal Energy has unearthed a new field in the Songkhla area in the Gulf of Thailand. Songkhla North was discovered by the A-11 well, drilled to 7,974 ft (2,430 m) TVD. The well encountered 44 ft (13.4 m) of net pay in the Lower Oligocene reservoir with 18% porosity and 69 ft (21 m) of net pay in the Eocene reservoir with 21% average porosity.
Pressure data suggest the well was drilled into a separate fault block, north of Songkhla East, and that an oil/water contact in this fault block may exist at 7,500 ft (2,286m) TVD.
Elsewhere, the Songkhla A-09 well, drilled to 8,109 ft (2,471 m) TVD, encountered 140 ft (42.6 m) of net pay in the Lower Oligocene reservoir with average porosity of 15% and pressures close to the original reservoir pressure at Songkhla Main.
The well also encountered 75 ft (22.8 m) of net pay in the underlying Eocene reservoir. It was tested and flowed at around 2,000 b/d at two-thirds pump capacity.
The Songkhla A-12 well was drilled into the same fault block as A-09. Coastal says the main Lower Oligocene target zone and the Eocene zone which was tested were water bearing at this location.
However, pressure data indicate that the Lower Oligocene reservoir in both these wells constitutes another new field discovery, named Songkhla East.
The A-12 well establishes the oil/water water contact and indicates a closure of around 287 acres (116 ha) and around 20 MMbbl of oil-in-place at Songkhla East. Coastal plans to sidetrack the A-12 well and target the Oligocene in a better structural position.
Production at Songkhla is currently being shut-in in preparation for upgrades to processing equipment.
The frac boat should soon start fracture stimulation of the Eocene reservoir in the Bua Ban A-04 well, which encountered over 400 ft of oil-bearing sand with average porosity of 14%.
Once drilling at Songkhla has been completed, Coastal is lining up further potentially high-impact exploration targets at Bua Ban North.
12/28/2010
