Horizon Oil has announced the start of a 2025 infill drilling operation in Block 22/12, located in the Beibu Gulf, China.
A drilling rig owned by COSL has been deployed to the WZ12-8W platform to drill a single well.
The new well is expected to convert contingent resources into reserves in Horizon Oil’s 30 June 2025 reserves report.
The operation aims to extract additional oil from an established field, with the well situated close to existing production facilities.
The infill drilling campaign is projected to yield an additional 400,000 barrels (bbl) of oil, with Horizon Oil’s net share amounting to 100,000bbl by the end of the contract term.
The estimated total incremental oil production rate from the well is 500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) gross, translating to 125bopd net for Horizon.
Horizon Oil plans to finance its share of the drilling costs using its existing cash reserves.
CNOOC, the operator of the drilling and completion operations, has scheduled the project to last for approximately one month from the commencement of drilling.
Horizon Oil CEO Richard Beament said: “We are pleased to be targeting additional production growth from Block 22/12. This drilling operation reinforces our commitment to investing in production expansion within one of our foundation assets, and at the same time developing our substantial inventory of contingent resources.”
In a related development, Horizon Oil expanded its portfolio in Thailand by signing a sale and purchase agreement to acquire interests in the Sinphuhorm and Nam Phong gas fields from ExxonMobil.
Horizon Oil, through its subsidiary Horizon Thailand Investments, will gain a 7.5% working interest in the Sinphuhorm gas field and a 60% interest in the Nam Phong gas field.
Additionally, CNOOC recently initiated production at the Wenchang 9-7 Oilfield Development Project in the western Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea.
This project includes a new drilling and production platform and is designed to boost oil recovery using advanced technologies such as miscible gas flooding.
