A collaborative effort between British and United Arab Emirates (UAE) oil companies, Harbour Energy & Mubadala Energy, continues to intensify as they progress with advanced drilling operations to ascertain gas reserves in the Andaman Sea.

Following the successful drilling of the Timpan-1 exploration well, the duo proceeded with drilling operations at the Gayo-1 well. "The drilling of the Gayo-1 exploration well in WK Andaman 2 is still in progress," Deputy Head of Upstream oil and gas regulatory task force (SKK Migas), Nanang Abdul Manaf, said as quoted by Bisnis.com on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

Nanang said they aim to conduct layer content tests soon to validate the reservoir content of the second exploration well in the Andaman II Block.

The Gayo-1 well, situated in the Andaman Sea, Aceh Province, is undergoing vertical drilling using Rig West Capella (Drillship), with a planned final depth reaching 11,733 ft TVD RT. This drilling activity aims to evaluate hydrocarbon content in the Bampo Sandstones reservoir.

The focus lies on acquiring reservoir and fluid data through LWD, wireline logging, coring, and downhole sampling in open-hole conditions, with estimated resources reaching GIP 1.205 Tcf and Recoverable 723 Bcf & 33.5 MMSTB.

Furthermore, advanced exploration drilling is planned for the Layaran-2 prospect, part of the South Andaman concession. "For the South Andaman WK, we await the rig's turn from Andaman II," Nanang said.

SKK Migas estimates that the investment for four exploration wells in the Andaman Sea, conducted by Harbour Energy in partnership with Mubadala Energy, will reach US$360 million, or equivalent to Rp5.5 trillion.

The expansion of exploration wells targets the Layaran prospect in the South Andaman Block, operated by Mubadala Energy. Subsequent exploration drilling will focus on the Halwa and Gayo prospects in the Andaman II Block. The fourth drilling operation will return to South Andaman after the results of the Layaran drilling are determined.

This exploration momentum gained traction after the successful drilling of the first well, Timpan-1, in the Andaman II Block last year, which resulted in the flow of additional contingent resources (2C) of 80 MMboe and significant gas potential (multi-Tcf play).