Hess, BPMIGAS discussing Semai-V's 3rd well drilling
Saturday, February 4 2012 - 03:40 AM WIB
US oil and gas firm Hess Corporation is currently discussing with the upstream authority BPMIGAS over a plan to drill the third well, Andalan 3, in Semai V deepwater exploration block offshore West Papua following discouraging results in previous drilling of two wells, BPMIGAS Sub-division Head for Public Affair Budi Handoko told Petromindo.com.
He said Hess has reported to the upstream authority that the drilling of Andalan 1 and Andalan 2 wells had failed to discover hydrocarbon at commercial quantity.
Budi said after drilling Andalan 1 well for 159 days Hess saw indication of hydrocarbon. Therefore, it moved to drill Andalan 2 well for 25 days, however it failed to discover hydrocarbon in the second well.
?Hess is now discussing with BPMIGAS over a plan to drill the third well in Semai V block,? he said. No talks yet on aborting the drilling programs on the block.
Andalan 1 well drilling was spud on July 12, 2011. Hess used Rig Ocean Rover in drilling the two wells.
Hess has a commitment to drill three exploration wells in the Semai block. Hess has been asked by BPMIGAS to conduct technical evaluation on the drilling results and discuss with BPMIGAS over the following steps.
Earlier, Hess set expenditure of US$98 million to drill the Andalan 1 well and Andalan 2 at about US$52 million. However, the company has yet to disclose the actual costs that have been spent in drilling the wells.
Hess has 100 percent interest in the block, which covers an area of 3,949 square kilometers in the deep waters off West Papua.
Editing by Roffie Kurniawan