Murphy fails to discover oil, gas in Papua

US oil, gas firm Murphy Oil failed to discover hydrocarbon at its Semai I exploration block offshore West Papua, an official with upstream oil, gas authority BPMIGAS said.

Spokesman Gde Pradnyana told Petromindo.com that the Lengkuas well was drilled to the planned depth but Murphy decided not to test the well as indications has not justified testing. .

Murphy has 3-well commitment on the block but Gde said the company will not immediately proceed with drilling of the second well.

The block is operated by Murphy which shares equal interest of 28.3 percent with Japan?s Inpex and Thailand?s PTTEP. The remaining 15 percent balance is held by Pertamina.

Semai II offshore block covers approximately 3,300 square kilometers, located south of West Papua.

The block was awarded in November 2008.

Under the contract, the partners will conduct a 3D seismic survey and drill 3 exploration wells in the first three years. They paid US$11 million in signature bonus to the government and are committed to invest a total of $138.5 million in the first three years.

Gde said that the rig is moved to conduct drilling at the adjacent Hess-operated Semai V block. (bernard/josef)