Ranhill to drill W. Java block Nov

RANHILL Bhd, the Malaysia's largest engineering group, plans to drill for oil in West Java, Indonesia, by November, a top official with Ranhill Energy Sdn Bhd said as quoted by Malaysia's Business Times.

Ranhill, via its 60 per cent investment in a joint venture company PT Bumi Parahyangan Ranhill Energia Citarum, secured the oil block in October last year.

Ranhill Energy chief executive officer, David G. S. Lamb, said he is optimistic that the group will strike oil in West Java, noting an international oil and gas reserve consultant has indentified substantial prospective reserves in the area.

Ranhill will be drilling at the Citarum block, which covers some 4,400 sq km.

According to the study by the consultant, the expected resources in one of the prospects in Citarum block called Pasundan is between 150 million and 342 million barrels of oil.

"We should know by January 2007 on how successful we are at Citarum," said Lamb, who is based in Indonesia, in an interview with Business Times.(*)