Unocal drills 2 wells in RI

Unocal drills 2 wells in RI

EL SEGUNDO, California (Reuters): Unocal Corp Monday said its
Indonesian subsidiary in Indonesia has drilled two new,
successful wells in the deepwater Merah Besar area expanding the
field's size.

"Based on the latest drilling results...we now estimate the
gross resource potential for the Merah Besar area at 75 to 300
million barrels of oil equivalent," Timothy Lauer, president of
Unocal Indonesia, said in a statement.

The two wells, Merah Besar 9 and Hitam Besar 1, encountered
shallow gas on the East Kalimantan production-sharing contract
area.

The Merah Besar 9 well also found deeper oil pay in the
Miocene formation, but well problems prevented evaluation of the
Miocene sands in the Hitam Besar 1.

The company intends to submit a plan of development for the
Merah Besar area in the fourth quarter of 1998. Production could
begin by early 2001, it said.