Woodside's Second Gas Discovery in Myanmar

Woodside advises that the Thalin-1A exploration well in Block AD-7 in the Rakhine Basin has intersected a gross gas column of approximately 64m. Approximately 62m of net gas pay is interpreted within the primary target interval.

Block AD-7 is located in the Bay of Bengal, approximately 100km offshore of the west coast of Myanmar. Water depth at the Thalin-1A well location is 836m. The well reached a total depth of 3034m, referenced from the rig rotary table. Following drilling, wireline logging was conducted and confirmed the presence of a gas column through pressure measurements and gas sampling.

The gas discovery at Thalin-1A follows an earlier gas discovery by Woodside at the Shwe Yee Htun-1 well in Block A-6, announced on 4 January 2016.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the two discoveries at opposite ends of the Rakhine Basin was a great result for the company.“These results are very encouraging for future exploration and appraisal activity, given the significant footprint we have in Myanmar,” he said.

Mr Coleman said Thalin-1A had successfully proved a working petroleum system and a new play type different to that encountered at Shwe Yee Htun-1. “These discoveries provide evidence of the high quality of offshore Myanmar as an exploration focus area,” he said.

Thalin-1A is located in the northern part of the Rakhine Basin approximately 60km west of the Daewoo operated producing Shwe Field, which has onshore gas plant and pipeline gas export facilities.

With a 40% interest in AD-7, Woodside Energy (Myanmar) Pte Ltd, is the operator with respect to deepwater drilling. Daewoo International Corporation, with a 60% interest, is operator for all other operations. The AD-7 Block’s area was recently expanded north to the Myanmar maritime boundary.

The AD-7 Joint Venture has approved the acquisition of an additional 1200km2 of 3D seismic data over this area. The seismic survey is scheduled to commence in March 2016 and will facilitate further evaluation and expansion of the prospect portfolio.

Woodside is currently the largest acreage holder in the offshore Rakhine basin with interests in six blocks (details overleaf). The six permits make up ~47,000km2 and represent 20% of Woodside’s global exploration acreage