Murphy, Hess set to drill six wells in W. Papua blocks

US oil, gas firms Murphy Oil and Hess Corp. are set to drill six wells in their offshore oil fields in Fak-Fak, West Papua following the completion of their seismic survey in the oil fields, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

Hamdi Zainal, a representative of upstream oil, gas regulator BPMIGAS for East Java, Papua and Maluku said on Tuesday that Murphy and Hess had just completed their 3-D seismic survey in Semai II and Semai V blocks, respectively.

?Murphy and Hess will respectively drill three wells. They will start drill in November,? he said.

Murphy Oil (Semai II) and Hess (Semai V) are two of five oil contractors awarded to develop the offshore Fak Fak oil, gas block. The other three contractors are

Genting Oil (Kasuri), Chevron Indonesia Company (West Papua I and West Papua III) and BP Indonesia (Berau).

He said that Genting had conducted a 2D seismic survey on a 1,275- kilometer area, or about 65 percent of the targeted area, while BP Indonesia will begin a 3D survey in July.

"Chevron will carry out its 2D survey activities both on its onshore and offshore fields between October this year and March next year,? he added. (*)