Industry players with deep pockets have their sights set on giant gas fields in the South China Sea, seemingly undeterred by contaminants such as CO2 and H2S that add to the cost and complexity of the development.
National petroleum exploration and production company PTTEP has just completed an appraisal well on its Lang Lebah discovery on Block SK 410B offshore East Malaysia, while Italy’s Eni is set to drill the Dan Day wildcat in Vietnamese territorial waters.
The Lang Lebah-2 appraisal well, completed in January, delivered in spades. The successful appraisal has given the Lang Lebah co-venturers impetus to accelerate the development, with an aim to award the offshore and onshore FEED contracts this year and take FID in 2022.
Eni last year drilled the Ken Bau-2X exploration well on Block 114 — where India’s Essar E&P is a 50:50 partner — in the Song Hong basin offshore Vietnam, which boosted the reserves attributed to the 2019 Ken Bau gas condensate discovery some two kilometres away.
Now, Eni is to spin the drill bit on its Dan Day prospect in an emerging play just 10 kilometres northwest of Ken Bau.
Meanwhile, Repsol and Petronas upcoming Rencong exploration well offshore Indonesia will be targeting an Oligocene carbonate build-up, possibly similar to the giant Arun onshore gas field.