Rig contract ended, GTMT suspends drilling in TMT-53

By Romel S. Gurky

Singapore-listed Interra Resources Ltd said that its wholly owned subsidiary Goldwater TMT Pte Ltd (GTMT) has terminated the contract for the drilling rig used in well TMT-53 due to its performance failures.

As a result, the drilling operations for TMT-53 at the Tanjung Miring Timur (TMT) field in South Sumatra, have been temporarily suspended pending the arrival of another rig from a different drilling contractor, the company said in a press statement on Wednesday.

It stated that the total cost for drilling TMT-53 will not be significantly higher than the original budget. Goldwater TMT has 100 percent working interest in the technical assistance contract of the Tanjung Miring Timur (TMT) field.

As Interra intends to meet its planned target of drilling four wells in succession over quality prospects, two high quality rigs have been contracted for immediate operations.

These rigs will commence drilling on two other selected locations as the TMT-53 surface location is presently not accessible due to the rigging down of the existing rig.

The four new wells are aimed at greatly enhancing the ability to maximise oil production from the field.

The Company wishes to advise that investors should exercise due care and caution when trading Interra?s shares. It is not certain that the development drilling mentioned above will ultimately yield commercially recoverable hydrocarbons or profitable production.

New drilling at TMT field had been temporarily suspended since April 2009, pending the results of 3D seismic acquisition and interpretation over the field, which was completed during the second quarter of 2012, the company said.

Several quality locations have been delineated based on the 3D seismic results, with four selected to be drilled in succession.

TMT-53 is drilled as a development well on the west side of the field and is aimed at producing additional oil from reservoirs in the Talang Akar Formation.

Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.