{"id":20970,"date":"2026-07-07T08:55:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/?p=20970"},"modified":"2026-07-07T08:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:56:25","slug":"totalenergies-begins-drilling-pngs-first-deepwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/industry-news-en\/totalenergies-begins-drilling-pngs-first-deepwater.html","title":{"rendered":"TotalEnergies begins drilling PNG\u2019s first deepwater well with Noble Viking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"470\" src=\"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1689076840005-780x470-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20971\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1689076840005-780x470-1.jpeg 780w, https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1689076840005-780x470-1-300x181.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1689076840005-780x470-1-768x463.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1689076840005-780x470-1-600x362.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TotalEnergies and PETRONAS began drilling the Mailu-1 exploration well, Papua New Guinea\u2019s first deepwater well, in Block PL 576 in the Gulf of Papua on 23 June 2026.<br>The well is being drilled by Noble Corp\u2019s Noble Viking, a seventh-generation drillship equipped with managed pressure drilling technology, capable of drilling to 40,000 ft and operating in water depths of up to 12,000 ft. Mailu-1 itself targets a water depth of around 2,100 m. TotalEnergies operates the block with a 50% interest, with PETRONAS holding the remaining 50% after farming into the block in 2024.<br>The commencement of drilling was marked aboard the rig, with Papua New Guinea\u2019s Minister for Petroleum, Jimmy Maladina, representing the national government. Mailu-1 is a frontier wildcat targeting a large liquids prospect in the underexplored Torres Basin, southeast of Port Moresby.\uff082026-07-07\uff09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TotalEnergies and PETRONAS began drilling the Mailu-1 exploration well, Papua New Guinea\u2019s first deepwater well, in Block PL 576 in the Gulf of Papua on 23 June 2026.The well is being drilled by Noble Corp\u2019s Noble Viking, a seventh-generation drillship equipped with managed pressure drilling technology, capable of drilling to 40,000 ft and operating in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20973,"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20970\/revisions\/20973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classic-ap.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}