Salamander fired up over 20+ Thai prospects

Salamander Energy, the oil and gas firm focused on Asia, continues to crank up output in Thailand and has identified plenty more prospects in the area.

Average daily production for the year up to November 15th was 10,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), while average production during November has risen to 11,700 boepd. That means the company should comfortably hit its full year production forecast of between 10,500 and 11,500 boepd.

Initial analysis of three-dimensional seismic data covering the Greater Bualang area in Thailand has identified more than 20 prospects for Salamander to get fired up about.

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These prospects lie within the 20m to 80m barrels of oil range, with the chances of success expected to be around the 30% level once the prospects are matured. Salamander said a number of these prospects are ready to be drilled, and it expects to spud a minimum of six exploration wells on this acreage in 2013.

The group revealed that it has now received environmental permits for six locations in the northern part of the licence area, while in the southern area of the G4/50 licence, applications for environmental permits are at an advanced stage with all documentation expected to be submitted around year-end.

Looking beyond Thailand, further production growth will be delivered from the Kerendan field in Indonesia. The DrillCo-1 rig arrived on location in August and is currently batch-drilling three development wells. On completion of the development drilling, the group expects to be in a position to commercialise up to 160bn cubic feet of additional resource; this volume is above and beyond the 120bn cubic feet of proved plus probable (2P) reserves that are already the subject of a gas sales agreement with PLN, Indonesia's state-owned electricity company.

At the end of October total debt, including the group's $100m convertible bond, was $270.8m, while total available funds were $114.2m; net debt (including the convertible bond) was $156.7m, up from $82.5m at the end of June.

JH