Offshore staff

GUILDFORD, UK -- The Kingdom of Thailand has approved a 282-sq km (109-sq mi) production license surrounding the Bua Ban field in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Thailand, according to Coastal Energy.

The license is in effect for 20 years, or until production ceases. The Bua Ban field contains an estimated 21.8 MMbbl of proven plus probable reserves based on the company's 2007 year-end reserves report. Coastal Energy is the operator and owns 100% of the field, contained within its G5/43 block.

The company plans to develop Bua Ban field beginning in the second quarter, with first production expected in the third quarter through temporary storage and offloading facilities. Production is expected to average 9,500 b/d of oil by the end of the year.

This is in addition to the 10,000 b/d of oil planned for the Songkhla field, also located in block G5/43, which was developed in late 2008. The company is currently installing a MOPU and storage tanker at Songkhla and plans to restart production by the end of February. Installation of permanent production facilities at Songkhla is planned for the second quarter.

Coastal Energy owns a 3D seismic survey covering this trend and has identified nine additional prospects that look similar to the Bua Ban field, the company says. All of these prospects are located within the Bua Ban production license. One of these structures, Benjarong Main, was penetrated by the Benjarong-1 well, which encountered 105 ft (32) of net pay between 9,954 ft (3,034 m) and 10,379 ft (3,164 m).

Five of the nine prospects are located near the Bua Ban field and the other three prospects are located nearer to the Benjarong Main structure. The high resource case for the Bua Ban area prospects is approximately 312 MMbbl based on the company's 2007 year-end reserves report. The prospects in the Benjarong area, including Benjarong Main, are estimated by the company to contain potential high case resources of 39 MMbbl.

01/23/2009