Singapore Petroleum begins drilling well off Cambodia

Phnom Penh, Jul 12, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source) -- Singapore Petroleum Company Ltd (SPC) has begun oil and gas exploration activities offshore Cambodia, according to local media.

The well is the first in Block B, about 160 km southwest of Sihanoukville. Drilling to test the hydrocarbon potential is expected to take about 15 days since July 8, the company said in a statement.

In March, US energy giant Chevron announced oil in Block A offshore the Sihanoukville after conducting six exploration drillings. The Cambodian National Petroleum Agency estimated oil reserves in the well of up to 500 million barrels.

Cambodia's oil reserves are estimated up to 2 billion barrels and gas to 10,000 cubic metres, according to the World Bank, Harvard University and prestigious organistions.

SPC spuds first [oil] well on Cambodia Block B

7/8/2008
Filed from Aberdeen
Energy Current

CAMBODIA: Singapore Petroleum Co. Ltd. and its partners in Block B off Cambodia today spud the block's first exploration well, Vimean Morodok MahaNorkor-1.

The Block B exploration prospect lies east of the Khmer sub-basin in a water depth of about 75 metres (246 ft). The prospect lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the Thai-Cambodian Overlapping Claims Area in the Gulf of Thailand.

The exploration well will be drilled to test the hydrocarbon potential in the Oligocene fluvio-lacustrine sediment as the primary target and the Miocene fluvial-deltaic sediment reservoirs as the secondary objective. The well is anticipated to reach a true vertical depth of 2,917 meters (9,570 ft). Drilling is expected to take approximately 15 days to complete.

Singapore Petroleum Company to invest more in Cambodia Block B

October 20, 2007
Companies to invest more in oil, gas exploration in Block B, Cambodia

The Singapore Petroleum Company (Cambodia) Limited (SPC) and its two partners said here on Friday that they will invest another 2.5 million U.S. dollars progressively in oil and gas exploration in Block B in off-sea Cambodia.

"We are interested in exploring oil and gas in Block B," said Lim Beng See, who is in charge of investor relation and communication for SPC.

So far, SPC and its two partners, the PTTEP International Limited and the Resourceful Petroleum Limited, have invested about one million U.S. dollars in Block B, he said.

"We don't know how many barrels of oil and gas there are, yet we are at the exploration stage in Block B," he added.

Block B is located in the Gulf of Thailand, some 250 kilometers off the coast of Cambodia. Is located to the southeast of the Khmer Basin, where a number of oil and gas discoveries have been made, said a SPC statement.

Each company has one-third of the shares in Block B in accordance with the approval of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA), it added.

Investors from early 10 countries have been trying to find oil and gas in Block A to F near the seashore of Cambodia in the past decade, but none of them starts production yet.

Cambodia is preparing a draft law for oil and gas management and expects to get benefits from oil and gas in 2010.

Millions of barrels of oil and gas are estimated to lie beneath the sea southwest to Cambodia.

Source:Xinhua