Woodside's entire program comprises four scheduled and three contingent wells.

 

Two are appraisal wells, planned for Block AD-7, and exploration wells are planned for each of Block AD-7 and A-6.

 

The three contingent wells, for which work is advanced on maturing two additional drilling candidates, remain subject to internal, joint venture and government  approvals. 

 

Energy News has learned that drilling has started with the first well in its sequence, the Thalin-1B re-entry.

 

Meanwhile, Energy News has also learned that an international tender to build Myanmar's first LNG terminal will start as early as next month.

 

The $US2 billion ($A2.64 billion) project includes a floating LNG terminal with 3-4 million tonnes per annum capacity, construction of a 200km pipeline to bring the gas to urban areas and a 1 gigawatt gas-fired power plant to help solve the country's electricity reliability issues, government sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.

 

The project, led by Myanmar's Ministry of Electricity and Energy, is aimed squarely at meeting the country's growing electricity demand.

 

While a site is yet to be finalised, a coastal area east of Mon near Yangon is looking good, and the terminal should be online by 2020 at the earliest.

 

The government has been lobbying hard for domestic and international companies to be a part of the project in recent months, it has been revealed, with several dozen including Japanese trading houses and Thai and European oilers all expressing interest.

 

Myanmar's economic growth has taken off since it transitioned to a civilian government in 2022, and electricity demand is now expected to triple by 2020 to about 23 terawatts from 2012 levels.

 

The country is scrambling to build more power plants to ensure a stable electricity supply as about 60-70% of them are currently hydroelectric, which means their reliability varies between seasons.