Pertamina finds oil in Irian

JAKARTA (JP): State owned oil and gas company Pertamina announced on Thursday that it had discovered an oil and gas reserve on Salawati Island in Irian Jaya.

"The reserve contains 7 million metric barrels of oil and 17 billion cubic feet of gas," Pertamina said in a statement, adding that it had concluded drilling at the Salawati O-1 (SLO-1) well on July 2.

The layer test of the well discharged 583 barrels of oil per day and 8.5 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Pertamina will continue tests at the SLO-2 well over the next two months, the statement added.

The cost of drilling amounted to US$2.1 million, 49 percent lower than the allocated expenditure budget. (05)