Oil and gas company Valeura Energy has entered into a definitive agreement with PT Samudra Alam Transport to charter the MT Vula crude oil tanker to store oil produced from the Wassana oil field, offshore in the Gulf of Thailand.
In Q2 2022, Valeura acquired KrisEnergy International (Thailand) Holdings Ltd. which owns and operates two licenses in the offshore Gulf of Thailand.
The acquisition included the suspended Wassana oil field and the fully appraised Rossukon oil field. Additionally, through a separate agreement, the company agreed to acquire the Mobile Production Unit Ingenium (“MOPU”) which is on location at the Wassana oil field.
Valeura said this week that the oil tanker to be chartered for Wassana would be renamed MT Jaka Tarub.
The MT Jaka Tarub is a Panamax-sized oil tanker, with a storage capacity of 460,000 bbls. Following cleaning and modification work scheduled for December 2022, the vessel will be made compatible with the Wassana field’s mooring and crude oil offloading systems.
Pending customs clearance, the MT Jaka Tarub is expected to arrive at the field in early January 2023.
Valeura plans to resume production operations as soon as practicable upon the tanker's arrival, targeting initial oil production rates of up to 3,000 bbls/d, net to the 89% working interest held by its special purpose vehicle subsidiary, Valeura Energy Asia Pte. Ltd.
The company in October agreed with Petrovietnam Drilling and Well Service Corporation to charter the PV Drilling I jack-up drilling rig to support its Gulf of Thailand operations in 2023.
The PV Drilling I rig is expected to mobilize to the Wassana oil field in mid-Q2 2023, where it will conduct an initial scope of work comprised of the company's five-well infill drilling program.