Mobil announces gas finding

Mobil announces gas finding

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Mobil Makassar Inc., a unit of Mobil Corp, and Unocal Corp announced yesterday that additional oil and gas discovered in the deepwater Merah Besar area, offshore East Kalimantan, will be ready for production by 2001.

With the new discovery, it is estimated that the gross oil and gas resource potential in the greater Merah Besar area is between 100 million and 250 million barrels-of-oil equivalent.

The discovery in the deepwater area of the Mahakam Delta was made by two recent exploration wells, Hitam Besar-2, completed on May 6, 1998, and Hijau Besar-3, completed in early July. The wells showed evidence of oil, condensate and gas, and analysis on a deeper zone continues.

The delta is covered by the Makassar Strait Production Sharing Contract (PSC). Mobil and Unocal each hold a 50 percent working interest in the Makassar Strait PSC.

Mobil has an agreement with Unocal to acquire 30 percent interest in the Rapak block, which is located to the north of and adjacent to the Makassar Strait PSC.