Valeura Energy Inc. (LON:VLE) has completed an eight well drilling campaign at its Nong Yao field in the offshore Gulf of Thailand, adding further operational momentum at the company’s largest producing asset and demonstrating a new technical approach that could influence future field development across its portfolio.
The campaign was carried out on block G11/48, where Valeura holds a 90% operated working interest. It included one appraisal well and seven horizontal development wells drilled from the Nong Yao A and Nong Yao B platforms. The appraisal well encountered its intended target and is expected to support future development drilling at the Nong Yao A platform, giving the company additional visibility on potential follow-on activity within the field.
The seven horizontal development wells also encountered their targets successfully and have been brought online as producers. This outcome is relevant from a timing and asset development perspective, as it extends the company’s ability to access new oil reservoirs through ongoing drilling while continuing to optimise output from existing offshore infrastructure.
A notable feature of the programme was the NYA-42ST1H well, which set a new Gulf of Thailand record for the longest horizontal lateral ever drilled, measuring 4,960 feet. The achievement points to the technical capability of Valeura’s drilling and completions team and supports the company’s focus on maximising reservoir contact within its established fields.
Production from Nong Yao has increased following the drilling programme and a well workover campaign conducted at the same time on the Nong Yao B and Nong Yao C platforms. The workover activity was designed to optimise well performance, adding another layer of operational efficiency to the field programme. Before the work began, Nong Yao production averaged 8,870 barrels of oil per day for the seven-day period ending 4 April 2026. Following the campaign, rates increased to approximately 10,500 barrels of oil per day for the seven-day period ending 16 June 2026, stated on Valeura’s working interest share before royalties.
The campaign also included Valeura’s first ever multi-lateral well, marking an important development in the company’s Gulf of Thailand operating model. In the NYB-02ST1 wellbore, Valeura constructed a complex junction point from which two separate horizontal production legs were drilled, each targeting a different reservoir interval. The company has recorded these as two separate development wells, and the well represents the first multi-lateral of this level of complexity attempted in Thailand.
This approach has a clear capital and infrastructure relevance. The two lateral intervals are now producing oil from separate development targets while using only one well slot on the wellhead facility. In offshore developments where platform capacity and well slots are important constraints, the ability to access more reservoir through fewer surface slots can support more efficient field planning and potentially improve the economics of future drilling programmes.
Valeura’s management has highlighted the broader potential of multi-lateral drilling across the company’s Gulf of Thailand portfolio. The company is now reviewing its forward drilling schedule to identify other suitable candidates, including wells that may be able to support two or more separate lateral production legs. This suggests that the Nong Yao result may become part of a wider development strategy rather than remaining a one-off technical achievement.
The company’s contracted drilling rig has now moved to the Jasmine field on block B5/27, where Valeura holds a 100% interest. The planned five-well programme at Jasmine consists of three single-bore development wells and a two-wellbore multi-lateral development well. This next phase will provide an early indication of how quickly the multi-lateral approach can be applied beyond Nong Yao and whether it can become a repeatable feature of Valeura’s offshore drilling programme.
Valeura’s latest update reinforces a strategy focused on using drilling execution, reservoir access and infrastructure efficiency to strengthen the value of its Gulf of Thailand assets. The combination of new producing wells, workover-led optimisation and a successful multi-lateral well provides a clearer route for the company to pursue incremental barrels from its existing offshore platform base.
