Chuditch Gas Field Drilling Ops Get Delayed to Next Year
June 16, 2025
Sunda Energy, the AIM-quoted exploration and appraisal company focused on gas assets in Southeast Asia, has pushed back the drilling of appraisal well Chuditch-2, offshore Timor-Leste, for the first half of 2026.
Chuditch-2 appraisal well on the Chuditch field in the TL-SO-19-16 Production Sharing Contract (PSC), planned for drilling by the company's wholly owned Timor-Leste subsidiary SundaGas Banda Unipessoal in the second half of 2025, is now expected to be drilled in the first half of 2026.
The delay is due to the absence at the present time of certain essential logistical services in Timor-Leste that are mutually acceptable to the joint venture partners, and that meet the required international operational and safety standards, according to the Sunda Energy.
Therefore, the company has not been able to proceed with the execution of a definitive, agreed form rig contract, which is an outstanding condition to the farm-in agreement entered into on April 2025 by SundaGas and government-owned joint venture partner TIMOR GAP.
The postponement of the drilling campaign to 2026, will require several subsequent actions to be undertaken.
An application has already been submitted by the joint venture partners for a 12-month extension of the current phase of the PSC, which expires on June 18 2025, to the upstream regulator Autoridade Nacional do Petróleo (ANP). The Company said that it anticipates that the extension will be granted prior to the expiration of third contract year.
Since the conditions of the farm-in agreement have not been fulfilled and the long stop date having passed, the farm-in agreement between Sunda Energy and TIMOR GAP signed in April 2025 will terminate.
However, SundaGas and TIMOR GAP have agreed to hold further discussions on partnering arrangements including a potential revised farm-in on substantially the same terms.
Termination of the Farm-In Agreement means the working interests on the PSC remain unchanged, with SundaGas holding a 60% working interest and operatorship and TIMOR GAP having a 40% interest. SundaGas and TIMOR GAP are responsible for paying 80% and 20% of all project costs respectively.
SundaGas and TIMOR GAP have agreed to work closely together to pursue alternative drilling rigs for the Chuditch-2 well, as the rig that had been negotiated is in the process of being sold to a third party.
The process for the issuance of an environmental permit (EP) for the Chuditch-2 well will also continue. It is expected that the final EP will be issued during the third quarter of 2025.
"While this temporary delay is frustrating, the significant value to Sunda and its shareholders remains. The sole reason that the company has not been able to sign the rig contract and progress to drill now is the absence of viable in-country logistical services that are mutually acceptable to the joint venture partners at this time.
“We are however already working to establish a plan for timely drilling in 2026, in close liaison with TIMOR GAP and ANP, building on the extensive preparations that have been carried out to date,” said Andy Butler, Chief Executive Officer of Sunda.
