Energy Equity confirms major gas find in RI

Energy Equity confirms major gas find in RI

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP): Energy Equity Corp. yesterday said testing at its Singa 1 gas well in Indonesia had confirmed a major gas discovery that could be in commercial production before the end of 1998.

"It's a good result, an excellent result," Energy Equity's managing director Maurice Brand said.

He said both Energy Equity and its partners were very pleased with the strong 20 million cubic feet (566,000 cubic meters) per day flow from the Batu Raja section of the well, which had been expected to be the weakest part of its three well drilling program.

"I'm sure all our joint venture partners are tickled pink by the result, we didn't expect such a good flow from that particular zone, it has probably flowed 4-5 times more than we thought," Brand said.

Brand said there was the potential for much greater success from Singa and the whole Lematang production sharing contract). "We are well on the way to ending up with a significant amount of gas in that part of Indonesia," he said.

Brand said the Singa prospect was earlier expected to have a resource in excess of several trillion cubic feet of gas, and the Batu Raja finds were consistent with expectations.

Energy Equity is the operator and owner of 20 percent of the Lematang production sharing contract in South Sumatra, which includes the Singa 1 well.

Novus Petroleum owns 15 percent of Lematang, with the remainder held by American company Amerada Hess (50 percent) and French company Coparex (15 percent).

Brand said Energy Equity was not currently drilling any other wells.

It was concentrating on plans to integrate the gas from Singa into a power station along the lines of its 135 megawatt Sengkang power station currently being commissioned in Sulawesi.

Energy Equity is both the operator of the gas field and the owner of Sengkang power plant which is being commissioned this month.