Despite low oil prices, PetroChina still committed to exploration

PetroChina International Jabung Ltd said on Monday that it is still highly committed to the exploration drilling plan for Jabung PSC in Tanjung Jabung Barat, Tanjung Jabung Timur and Muaro Jambi regencies in Jambi province that has been approved by upstream authority SKK Migas despite the low oil prices.

For this year, the firm has planned to drill at least two wells, namely Tiung-3 and NEB Ext-1. The Tiung-3 well was spudded early this month, while the drilling of NEB Ext-1 well is still in the licensing process.

?Exploration activities at the two wells reflect the commitment of PetroChina to continuing developing Jabung block despite the reality the world oil prices continue to decline. The oil price is indeed discouraging, but it does not keep us from continuing efforts to find new reserves,? Jabung General Manager

In 2015, PetroChina Jabung recorded success during exploration of four wells, namely Panen-3, Panen Utara-2, NEB Base-2 and Tiung Utara-2. In Panen-3, the firm found oil and gas reserves with Drill Stem Test (DST) results of 1.7 mmscfd of gas and 1,849 bpd of oil. Meanwhile, DST on Panen Utara-2 well resulted in 1,045 bpd of oil, 136 bpd of condensate and 6.7 mmscd of gas; Drilling at NEB Base-2 well confirmed the discovery of gas and condensate with DST results of 10.8 mmscfd and 475 bpd of condensate, while DST on Sumur Tiung Utara-2 resulted in 18.2 mmscfd and 756 bpd of condensate.

All the new reserves were discovered in sandstone and carbonate formations of Gumai and Talang Akar from Miocene period.

Following the successful discovery of hydrocarbon in Tiung Utara-1 well in 2014 and Tiung Utara-2 in 2015, PetroChina will carry out 3D seismic survey on 320 sq km in order to the speed up the making of Plan of Development (PoD) of the discovered Tiung structure. The activity will start in April. ?The survey will take around eighth months,? Song said, adding the area covered by the new 3D survey is bigger than the area covered by the survey two years ago, which was 80 sq km.

Production target of Jabung block for this year is 52,938 boepd, consisting of 13,966 bpd of oil and 154 mmscfd of gas and LPG.

PetroChina is the operator of Jabung block. Its partners are Petronas Carigali (Jabung) Ltd, PP Oil & Gas (Indonesia-Jabung) Limited and PT Pertamina (Persero). Aside from Jabung PSC, PetroChina is also operator in Bangko block in Jambi. The firm also has interest in Kepala Burung PSC, JOB Salawati Island, both in Sorong, West Papua province; and JOB Pertamina-PetroChna East Java in Tuban, East Java province.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon