It has been over 30 years since MOECO was awarded exploration rights in the Gulf of Thailand. MOECO has been carrying out exploration for oil and gas in this area since 1971. During that period, the Erawan gas field was discovered in Thailand in 1973 and its production started in 1981. In turn, other gas fields were discovered. Currently, the average gas production is 740 mmcf per day produced by 13 offshore gas fields. In 1999 the Pailin gas field, Block B 12/27, in the gulf of Thailand began production. The current gas production of the Pailin field is approximately 330 mmcf per day. In order to achieve long term financial success in the gulf of Thailand, where geological structures are extremely complex and reservoir extents are marginal, an operator has been required to drill many wells at an absolute minimum cost.
Throughout the last 20 years of these field's productive lives, important initiatives have been undertaken by UNOCAL, as an operator, to meet numerous technical and economic challenges. I will introduce an overview of some of technical challenges in the fields, such as 3 D seismic, drilling innovation including simplified and slimhole well design, PDC bit, mud system, unitized wellhead, installation of top drives, steerable system and adjustable guage stabilizer, completion design, MWD etc.
