Offshore staff
SINGAPORE – Wood Mackenzie expects exploration drilling in Southeast Asia to recover strongly in 2022.
According to Angus Rodger, research director, APAC Upstream, wells to watch include Harbor Energy’s Timpan-1 and Repsol’s Rencong-1, both targeting deepwater gas off northern Sumatra; TotalEnergies deepwater Tepat North-1 well offshore Sabah; Eni’s program in Vietnam’s Song Hong basin; and Western Gas’ potentially giant Sasanof-1 gas prospect offshore Western Australia’s North West Shelf.
But the upsurge could prove to be short-lived, he suggested, with some of these operators potentially withdrawing from high-impact exploration in Asia if their wells do not pay off.
Following two years of subdued E&P activity in the region, numerous essential offshore development and maintenance programs have been deferred, he added, with potentially negative repercussions.
One early sign was certain gas fields in the Natuna Sea and Sumatra being taken offline this summer, cutting off supply to Singapore. As a result, the state was forced to turn to the LNG spot market, with several domestic power suppliers going bankrupt.
Supply-side integrity, from LNG backfill projects to maintenance backlogs, needs to be taken care of in 2022, or more unplanned outages could follow across Asia, Rodger warned.
12/16/2021
