Medco: Drilling of first well at Ijent geothermal area shows ?good result?

By Cepi Setiadi

Petromindo

PT Medco Power Indonesia (MPI) said it has completed drilling of the first exploration well at the Mount Ijen geothermal work area in East Java Province and shows ?good result.?

This was said by Fazil E. Alfitri, President Director of MPI, which is 51 percent owned by Saratoga Power and 49 percent by IDX-listed energy company PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk through subsidiary PT Medco Geothermal Light, to Petromindo.com recently.

"The first well shows good result," he said, without elaborating. "Now we are still conducting exploration drilling for the second well."

MPI is teaming up with Aboitiz Power Corp of the Philippines in the power plant project.

Fazil earlier said that after evaluating the result of second drilling, the company will continue with drilling of four additional wells to make sure the project is viable. He said in April that if everything goes well construction was targeted to start in 2017, in the hope that it could start operation in 2020.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak