Ranhill Energy discovers gas in Jatirarangon

Malaysian firm Ranhill Berhad announced Monday that its wholly owned subsidiary, Ranhill Energy had successfully struck a new gas reservoir at the Jatibarang structure at 3,000 meters depth in the Jatirarangon gas field of West Java, about 48 km south east of Jakarta.

Ranhill said the discovery of this new reservoir is anticipated to increase the prospective resources by a further 20 billion cubic feet per day (BCF) of gas from 114.2 BCF reserves when Ranhill decided to participate in this project in 2004.

“Works are in progress to de-bottleneck and revamp existing surface and production facilities to accommodate the anticipated gas flow rates of more then 15mmscfd, up to 30 mmscfd maximum capacity to the sales delivery point,” Ranhill said in a statement to the Bursa Malaysia (Malaysian bourse).

Ranhil also said negotiations were in progress with Indonesian oil and gas upstream authority BPMIGAS for a second gas sales contract.

According to Ranhill, the current gas sales contract ratified on 2004 will be supplemented by this new gas sale contract to cover the additional gas reserves and it is anticipated that the new gas sale price will be significantly higher then the current price in place. Total gas sales and volume to date is US$11.1 million and 3.76 BCF of gas respectively.

Jatirarangon gas field is operated by Ellipse Energy Jatirarangon Wahana Limited, in which Ranhill has a 49 percent stake, under a Technical Assistance Contract (TAC) with state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina. (Robert)