Mubadala Petroleum began drilling operations at the Manora oil development in the Northern Gulf Thailand, reported joint venture partner Tap Oil Ltd.
The Atwood Orca jackup did the honors of spudding MNA-02, the first of 15 planned development wells, which include 10 producers and five injectors.
The MNA-02 will be drilled to 2104m TD. The second Manora well, the MNA-01 will be drilled to 2441m TD. Tap says both wells will be completed with electric submersible pumps ahead of handover to production. Drilling and completion of the wells are planned to take 24 days and production is expected to follow soon after the completion of both wells.
The single well head platform, Manora A, is in 46m of water. It is a four-leg platform jacket substructure with the topside containing production process and well head equipment along with a floating storage offloading unit (FSO). The JV expects Manora to ramp up at a peak of 15,000bbl/d.
The development drilling program is expected to be complete at the end of Q1 2015.
Tap has 2P reserves of 6.1MMbbls and 2C contingent resources of 3.2MMbbls booked for Manora. Tap says they will review these reserves and contingent resources following development drilling and production performance.
Mubadala is the operator with a 60% interest along with partners Tap Energy (30%) and Northern Gulf Petroleum (10%).
In July, the joint venture reported phase II of the development which included the loadout and installation of the platform topsides was complete.
Image of Atwood Orca from Atwood