Two oil platforms coming on-stream at Coastal Energy's Bua Ban North field off the coast of Thailand helped the oil & gas explorer to report a record half, with production more than doubling to 22,243 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and net profits rising 10-fold to $92m (£59m).
There were some qualifications to the performance. The second quarter production of 19,351 boepd from offshore prospects – the company produced 2,362 barrels onshore per day – was below what analysts had forecast due to a maintenance round at Bua Ban North. Also, the latest drilling campaign, centred on the Songkhla J-01 exploration well, failed to turn up oil in commercial quantities in northeast of the Lower Oligocene reservoir. In mitigation, this was the furthest away from the initial discovery that the company had tried to drill and management hasn't given up on the reservoir. An ongoing drilling programme at Songkhla A will be boosted by the arrival of a second platform that is due to begin work in November, which could confirm earlier signs of commercial viability.