Conoco appraises oil well

JAKARTA (JP): Conoco Indonesia Inc., a contractor for state oil and gas firm Pertamina, has announced finds of gas and oil from its drilling in the West Natuna Sea.

Pertamina's spokesman Ramli Djaafar said in a statement on Friday that Conoco's Belanak No. 5 appraisal well sprouted a total of 8,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and 7.5 million cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of natural gas during the recent drill stem tests.

Ramli said the well had been drilled to a total depth of 10,720 feet (3.2 kilometers) on the north flank of the Belanak field in the B Block of West Natuna Sea.

Four drill stem tests were conducted in the deeper sand at 8,355-8,466-feet and top sands at 8,024-8,034 feet subsea. The zones tested 2,850 bpd and 4 MMSCFD, and 5,150 bpd and 3.4 MMSCFD respectively.

Conoco Indonesia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Conoco Inc. based in Houston, has a 40 percent interest in the Belanak field and operates it along with Japan's Indonesia Petroleum Ltd (35 percent) and the United States-based Texaco Inc. (25 percent).

In September this year, Conoco conducted four drill stem tests on the Belut No. 3 exploration well, which flowed a combined rate of 5,600 bpd from the zones at 5,300 feet and 8,300 feet. Belut No. 3 was drilled to a total depth of 10,450 feet.

Both the Belanak and Belut fields will be developed in the next two to three years. Belanak is one of eight Conoco's gas fields that will be developed to support the West Natuna Gas project development. (jsk)