PERTH, AUSTRALIA: The Manora Oil Field (Northern Gulf of Thailand) Operator, Mubadala Petroleum, and Tap Oil Limited have approved the drilling of three firm exploration wells and an appraisal side-track, contingent upon exploration success. Tap Oil holds 30% interest in the oil field.

Mobilisation operations commenced on 17 November 2019 with the Ensco 115 jackup drilling rig reaching the Inthanin well location on 18 November 2019. The well location is 3.7 km south-southwest of the Manora platform.

The Inthanin-1 well spudded on 20 November 2019 and is scheduled to take approximately 11 days to complete the drilling. The Inthanin prospect trap is a three-way dip closure with the added possibility of a larger combination trap at the 500 sands level.

The primary objective of drilling the Inthanin-1 well is to explore for hydrocarbons in the 400, 500 and 600 series sands levels, all of which produce in the Manora East fault block 1.6km to the north-northeast.

The target reservoirs are fluvial at the 400 and 500 level and lacustrine at the 600 level. Following the drilling of the Inthanin-1 well, the rig will be moved on to drill the Yothaka East-1 and Krissana-1wells. A contingent side-track, into the Yothaka structure will be dependent upon the results of the Yothaka East-1 and Krissana-1 exploration wells.