Goldpetrol announces Myanmar spud

Singapore’s Interra Resources announced Monday that its joint venture Goldpetrol Joint Operating Company had initiated drilling of development well CHK 1199 in the Chauk oilfield in central Myanmar.

Interra has a 60-percent stake in both the Improved Petroleum Recovery Contract for the field and also the operating joint venture, more commonly known as Goldpetrol.

The CHK 1199 well is being drilled by Goldpetrol’s ZJ 450 rig to a depth of 1,160 metres as an up-dip offset to CHK 1168, which has been producing oil since mid-2013.

The spudding of Goldpetrol’s CHK 1199 well comes on the same day as another announcement from Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Electric Power to develop a 225-MW gas-fired power plant in central Myanmar. The $300-million plant is aimed at easing the country’s power deficit.

Myanmar urgently needs new oil development following November’s peaceful elections, as technology and infrastructure shortcomings threaten its medium-term oil output.

However, US sanctions require that the junta-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise may only be opened for foreign investment if the military makes a commitment for constitutional change to allow election winners to assume the presidency.

The country produced around 20,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in 2013, a figure that UK research and risk analysis company Business Monitor International expects will drop to 17,000 bopd by 2023, partially because of declining output from the Yetagun offshore field.

Proven reserves are 50 million barrels of oil and 540 bcm (19 tcf) of gas according to the US Energy Information Administration.