AsianOil: Eni expands Vietnamese portfolio

Italian major Eni has closed its acquisition of Singaporean independent KrisEnergy’s 100% stake in Block 115/09, which lies offshore Vietnam.
Eni said on April 12 that the acquisition further strengthened its presence in the Southeast Asian country, “consolidating its position in the recently discovered Ken Bau like play”, while furthering its efforts to expand its Asian gas portfolio.
KrisEnergy first advised on March 31 that it had finalised the sale of the 7,382-square km Block 115/09, but only said at the time that the buyer was a “major international oil and gas company”. The independent said the transfer had been completed after Vietnamese authorities had given their approval.
The acreage lies adjacent to Block 114, which Eni Vietnam operates with a 50% stake and partner Essar Exploration & Production holds the other 50%. Eni bought its stake in the block, which contains the Ken Bau gas and condensate discovery, in 2012 from Essar.
Eni announced the Ken Bau discovery in July 2019, after drilling the Ken Bau 1X exploration well to a total depth of 3,606 metres and encountering several gas and condensate intervals.
The major then announced in July 2020 that the Ken Bau-2X exploration well had further expanded the discovery’s potential. Ken Bau 2X, which was drilled 2 km from the first well, led to a preliminary reserve estimate of 7-9 trillion cubic feet (198.24-254.88bn cubic metres) of raw gas in place and 400-500mn barrels of associated condensates.
Block 115/09 also lies alongside Eni Vietnam’s wholly owned Block 116, which is located in 10-120 metres of water. Block 116’s original licence was signed in 2014 and provides for a three-phase exploration period over seven years.
In addition to the sale of Block 115/09, the financially beleaguered KrisEnergy has also sold its 30% stake in Indonesia’s Andaman II deepwater production-sharing contract (PSC) to BP.
The sales are part of an ongoing restructuring campaign the independent kicked off since late 2019. However, KrisEnergy’s announcement at the end of March that initial production from its Apsara oilfield offshore Cambodia had disappointed now raises some doubts about the company’s long-term viability.
KrisEnergy had based its restructuring campaign around Apsara’s successful production, with the company having set forth a pre-development peak production forecast of 7,500 bpd. The independent said last month that this figure was no longer possible, after a fifth well was brought online and production had only managed to reach a high of 3,534 bpd.