Daewoo International and Australia-based Woodside Energy have made a second gas discovery in the Bay of Bengal, offshore Myanmar's west coast of Myanmar.
The discovery comes after another gas column was confirmed in the same area in early January.
Daewoo International is the operator of Thalin-1A exploration well in Block AD-7 and holds a 60 percent stake. Woodside holds the remaining stake.
The two companies announced that they had intersected a gross gas column of approximately 210 feet (64 meters) while drilling the Thalin-1A well at a water depth of 2,743 feet and a total depth of 9,954 feet.
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Myanmar produces 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day, primarily from four offshore projects: Yadana, Shwe, Zawtika and Yetagun. Of this, it exports some 1.6 billion cubic feet per day, or 80 percent, to Thailand and China.
As of the end of 2014, Myanmar had 300 billion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves.
The latest discovery, coming off of another just the month before, is good news for Woodside, which has been working to revive its exploration arm in recent years, and was facing criticism from Credit Suisse analysts about its success rate. Credit Suisse analysts pointed out that Woodside had spent $1.9 billion on exploration over the last five years but had discovered only 142 million barrels of new proven and probable reserves.
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Woodside has a fairly big footprint in Myanmar, as does Daewoo. In addition to Block AD-7, the two have interests in the Shwe gas project in the offshore Rakhine Basin, which began commercial production in 2013 and exports to China. Woodside holds the largest acreage in this based, with interests in six blocks covering 47,000 square kilometers.
Other foreign companies operating in the country include Chevron subsidiary Unocal Myanmar Offshore, Royal Dutch Shell, Woodside, PTTEP International, Petronas, Canadian Foresight Group and Eni.
By James Burgess of Oilprice.com
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