Unocal discovers new gas and oil resources

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Unocal Ganal, a subsidiary of U.S. oil and gas company Unocal Corporation, said it has found significant gas-condensate and oil resources with an unrisked resource potential of up to 3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas equivalent at its deepwater Gehem well, off East Kalimantan.

The company said the reservoir had the potential for flowing in excess of 100 million cubic feet (MMSCFD) of gas per day and 5,000 barrels of oil condensate per day per well.

"The size of the potential Gehem resource, reservoir quality, potential high condensate yields and location relative to the Bontang liquefied natural gas plant, position Gehem to be a low- cost gas supplier to the plant," Charles R. Williamson, Unocal's chairman and chief executive officer said in a press release made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The Gehem-1 well where the gas-condensate and oil resource discovered is located in the Ganal production-sharing contract area, 5.6 kilometers south of Unocal's Ranggas field.

Williamson said the results would significantly increase the prospects of the deep oil, which are already in Unocal's drilling schedule for 2003.

Unocal Corp. and other oil and gas producers such as French Total, operates Bontang LNG plants in East Kalimantan, producing about 22.3 million metric tons a year.

The company also operates West Seno oil and gas field in the Makassar Strait, its first deepwater project in Indonesia. Unocal has been supplying LNG to Bontang plant since 1979.

"Gehem-1 is potentially the most significant well we have drilled in the deepwater since the Seno discovery well in 1998 because it opens up a new, deeper oil and gas trend for us across our huge acreage holdings in the deepwater of Kutai Basin," Williamson said.