Pan Orient abandons Shinta-1 well, plans to drill Buana-1

By Peni Pedriawan

Canadian oil and gas firm Pan Orient Energy Corp said it has completed the drilling of the Shinta-1 exploration well onshore Sumatra, Indonesia to a measured depth of 6,297 feet.

The company said in a statement received on Tuesday that oil shows were encountered throughout the well from a depth of approximately 1,300 feet to total depth and a fluid sample containing 120 ml of oil and 820 ml of water was recovered from a sandstone zone at 5,758 feet in the primary reservoir target of the Lower Talang Akar formation.

?However, no zones are deemed commercial based on the interpretation of open hole wire line logs, mud logs, pressure data and fluid samples and the well has been abandoned,? the company said. The Shinta-1 well is located within the Batu Gajah PSC.

Shinta-1 was drilled with an estimated total cost of approximately $3.4 million, 29% below the government approved AFE of $4.8 million. This well was the first to be drilled with the new drilling team led by Pan Orient's recently hired Chief Operating Officer Edward Bush, who is based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The rig will now mobilize to the Buana-1 location with the well expected to commence drilling in approximately 20 days. Buana-1 is an up dip appraisal to the NTO-1 gas discovery made in 2011 and is targeting natural gas in Lower Talang Akar sands and oil in the Upper Talang Akar and Gumai sands.

Pan Orient is a Calgary, Alberta based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations located onshore Thailand, Indonesia and in Western Canada.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak