Continental Energy gets green light for E. Kalimantan oil field development

Canadian junior oil explorer Continental Energy Corporation on Monday announced that its Indonesian affiliate GAT Bangkudulis Petroleum Company Ltd. (GATB) had received approval from state oil and gas firm Pertamina for the extension of drilling commitment on its Bangkudulis technical assistance contract (TAC) in East Kalimantan together with permission to proceed immediately with the planned 2002 drilling and development program for its Bangkudulis oil field.

Continental said with US$ 2.6 million budget, GATB intended to drill two development wells, repair an existing production well and install surface production facilities sufficient to place the three wells on oil production.

The Company expects to commence commercial production in mid-2002. Full exploitation of the field will take an additional 18 months from first production and involve drilling as many as 16 to 20 additional development wells.

The Bangkudulis Field discovery well tested accumulated production at a rate of 6,500 Barrels of oil per day of 41 gravity sweet crude on a 1`` choke from four separate sandstone oil reservoirs.

The discovery well was placed on production by the Pertamina for 4-years and produced over 560,000 barrels under natural flow conditions before production was suspended due to mechanical problems.(alex)