Murphy Oil announced a successful appraisal well in Vietnam that has confirmed the Golden Sea Lion Field has more than 300 million barrels of oil, with potential upside. This shallow-water discovery is the third-largest discovery in Southeast Asia over the past 25 years. 

About the project:

  • According to Murphy, the Hai Su Vang-2X (HSV-2X) appraisal well was spudded in October 2025, in Block 15-2/17 in the Cuu Long Basin.
  • The original discovery well HSV-1X found high quality, 37-degree API oil and encountered 370 feet of net oil pay across two reservoirs
  • The field is about 66 kilometers southeast in offshore Vietnam.
  • Murphy’s share price went up by 1.7 percent upon the successful appraisal news from Vietnam
  • Murphy is the operator and holds 40 percent equity in Block 15-2/17 and contiguous Block 15-1 to the north, with partners state company PetroVietnam (35 percent) and Korea’s SK Earthon (25 percent).

What did the exploratory well find?

  • The HSV-2X appraisal increased the net pay to 429 feet, including 332 feet in the deeper reservoir and 97 feet in the shallow reservoir.
  • HSV-2X extended the total hydrocarbon column to approximately 1,600 feet.
  • The primary reservoir achieved 6,000 barrels per day during its flow test.
  • Murphy said that formation evaluation supports reservoir continuity between the two wells.
  • Furthermore, HSV-2X found additional recoverable resources in the shallow reservoir as upside.
  • After HSV-1X drilled in 2025, Murphy estimated recoverable resources for the Golden Sea Lion (Hai Su Vang) Field to be 170–430 million barrels of oil equivalent.
  • With the results from HSV-2X, Murphy said that the midpoint of recoverable resources is now “toward the high end” of its previous estimate, and then clarified that the high end now exceeds 430 million barrels of oil equivalent.

What’s next?

  • Murphy is continuing other tests for HSV-2X.
  • Murphy plans to drill two more appraisal wells, HSC-3X in adjacent Block 15-1/05 and HSV-4X in Block 15-2/17, to firm up the development plan.
  • Also in offshore Vietnam, Murphy is developing the Lac Da Vang (Golden Camel) oil field, which will provide 10–15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day net production to Murphy in 2029/2030.

About Murphy:

  • Murphy is a publicly traded company headquartered in Houston. It has a market cap of $4.6 billion.
  • Murphy has been active in exploration in SE Asia for more than two decades.
  • During its latest presentation at Goldman Sachs energy conference 2026, Murphy said that it is producing about 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 713 million barrels of oil equivalent in proven reserves.
  • Murphy has its upstream business in four countries: The United States, Canada, Vietnam, and Côte d’Ivoire. 
  • Murphy has producing assets in the Gulf of Mexico (America), the Eagle Ford shale, and Canada. 
  • Murphy has development and exploration assets in Vietnam and solely exploration assets in Ivory Coast.
  • In 2002, it discovered the Kikeh deepwater oil field offshore Malaysia, which was sold to Thailand’s PTTEP in 2019.

What they are saying:

  • “This is the pivotal moment of our Vietnam business. The success of HSV-2X not only reinforces the commerciality of the Hai Su Van field, but also sets the stage for a robust development program,” said Eric Hambly, president and CEO of Murphy.
  • “In a predominantly gas-prone region, oil discoveries of this scale are exceptional,” said Angus Roger, head of Asia-Pacific upstream analysis from WoodMac. 

The bigger picture:

  • According to WoodMac, Murphy’s Golden Sea Lion field is the third-largest oil discovery in the past 25 years, after Indonesia’s Banyu Urip by ExxonMobil in 2001, and Malaysia’s Gumusut by Shell in 2003.
  • The discovery will help Vietnam reverse its production decline. Vietnam production decreased from 365,000 barrels per day in 2005 to 120,000 barrels per day in 2024. 
  • The positive news from Murphy is timely to help Vietnam’s ongoing offshore bid round.

Will Murphy’s success make it an acquisition target?

  • There used to be several nimble and innovative small to midsize independent explorers—Anadarko, Noble Energy, Tullow, Kosmos, and others—that were trailblazers for international exploration alongside Murphy. 
  • Large companies often use periods of sustained low oil prices as prime times to acquire smaller players, especially if the smaller company has a large oil/gas field that is yet to be fully valued or developed. 
  • For example, Anadarko was acquired by Occidental in 2019, and Chevron acquired Noble Energy in 2000.
  • Will a bigger company attempt to acquire Murphy during the current period of low oil prices?