Inpex strikes gas at Masela

Japan oil and gas firm Inpex Corp. has discovered gas from appraisal drilling in Masela block in Timor Sea after drill stem test undertaken on the well this week flowed significant amount of gas, a BPMIGAS official said.

BPMIGAS Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations Dodi Hidayat told Petromindo.Com on Friday that the Abadi-4 well flowed 29 MMCFD from 3,589-3,867 meters and 3,873-3,885 meters intervals through ? inch choke.

Abadi-4 well is part of the 3-4 wells appraisal drilling campaign Inpex plans to undertake in the block before submitting plan of development to commercialize the discovery.

The Masela Block is located offshore southwest of Tanimbar Island, about 800 kilometers east of Kupang and approximately 400 kilometers north of Darwin, Australia. Inpex operates the block with 100 percent working interest.

In 2002, Inpex confirmed a large natural gas accumulation in the block after two appraisal wells, Abadi-2 and Abadi-3, tested a total 32.4 MMCFD of gas.

Gas reserves at Masela are estimated to be around 4-7 TCF, which could warrant for development of an LNG plant. Report from Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai said in October last year that Inpex will invest US$4 billion to develop LNG plant in Masela, capable of producing 3 MTPA of LNG, with production to seen to begin in 2015. (godang)