Salamander Energy’s shares have fallen 3.5% after the firm was forced to temporarily shut down production at the Bualuang oil field in the Gulf of Thailand.
The upstream exploration firm confirmed the field had been temporarily shut-in following due to a damaged production riser.
The riser was damaged during a spell of bad weather when mooring chains from the Rubicon Vantage FPSO damaged it, resulting in a small oil spill.
Salamander said production was immediately stopped while the oil – approximately 20 barrels worth – was cleared up in a five-hour period.
Further inspection work and repairs are now underway and the FPSO owners has made arrangements to fit a new production riser if required. Salamander says production is set to start-up again around January 25th.
The firm said development drilling at the field had not been affected by the damaged production riser, and the Atwood Mako rig remains on the Bravo platform drilling the BB-02H well.
Salamander said it would use the period of downtime to carry out planned maintenance at the site.
“Despite the shut-in, the Group’s production forecast for 2014 remains unchanged with production expected to average between 13,000 and 16,000 boepd,” said Salamander.