Nong Yao oil field is situated in the G11/48 concession in southern Gulf of Thailand, approximately 165km off the coast of Thailand, in a water depth of approximately 75m.
The G11/48 development block, including the Nong Yao discovery, is owned by Mubadala Petroleum (67.5%), KrisEnergy (22.5%) and Palang Sophon (10%). Mubadala Petroleum operates the Nong Yao field, as well as the Manora oil field in the Gulf of Thailand.
Nong Yao field will have a production capacity of up to 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and 30,000 barrels of fluids per day (bfpd). It is expected to come on stream in the first half of 2015 and anticipated to have a life of roughly seven years.
Discovery and drilling of Nong Yao oil field
Nong Yao field was discovered in 2009 by the Nong Yao-1 exploration well, which was spud by Emerald Driller jack-up rig. The G11/48 concession covers 6,791km² over the southern margin of the Pattani Basin and the north-west border of the Malay Basin.
“The G11/48 concession covers 6,791km² over the southern margin of the Pattani Basin and the north-west border of the Malay Basin..”
A successful appraisal drilling programme comprising five wells that encountered oil was concluded in 2010.
Atwood Orca jack-up rig completed the drilling of the Rojana-A exploration commitment well at the Nong Yao field in June 2014. Water depth at the location of Rojana-A well is 70.6m. The well was drilled for evaluating a series of heaped Miocene sandstone reservoirs.
Nong Yao field development
The final investment decision for the Nong Yao field was approved by Mubadala Petroleum and Kris Energy in August 2013.
The development concept for the initial phase comprises 23 development wells targeting the primary reservoirs. It also includes a wellhead processing platform (WPP) and a minimum facility wellhead platform (WHP) with arrangements for exporting crude oil via a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
Wassana Oilfield Development, Gulf of Thailand
The Wassana oil field is located in the Gulf of Thailand G10/48 licence, south of the Pattani Basin.
The construction of the production and processing facilities was completed in February 2015 while installation of the FSO is underway as of May 2015.
Production rate at Nong Yao
The Nong Yao field is anticipated to achieve a peak production rate of 10,000bopd within a few months after the first oil. Mubadala is expected to bring out approximately 12.4 million barrels (gross) of oil through a combination of stilted lift and water-flood methods.
Contractors involved with Nong Yao development
Nippon Steel and Sumikin Engineering received the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract from Mubadala Petroleum to provide production and processing facilities.
In March 2014, Omni Offshore Terminals was contracted to supply an FSO vessel with a storage capacity of 700,000 barrels of oil.
Equatoriale Services was awarded the EPCI contract for single point mooring (SPM) catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy for the Nong Yao field. The soft mooring system with station-keeping capabilities will be connected to the FSO vessel.
Atwood Oceanics was awarded a contract to supply a jack-up rig for drilling operations at the field. Atwood Orca is a Pacific Class 400 jack-up rig built by PPL Shipyard.
Airpack Nederland supplied oil flooded, air cooled, rotary screw air compressors and heatless regenerating adsorption dryers for the WPP and the WHP.