Santos' gas sales and oil output in Indonesia slightly declines

Australian oil and gas company Santos Limited said on Wednesday that its Indonesian gas sales and crude oil production had slightly declined in the second quarter of 2005 compared to the previous quarter's results.

Santos said gas sales only reached 1.3 petajoules (PJ) or about 223,518.1 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) compared to 1.4 PJ (240,711.8 boe) in the first quarter of 2005. Meanwhile, the crude oil production had dropped to 22,900 barrels from 38,200 barrels.

Santos holds participating interest in two Indonesia producing blocks, the Brantas in East Java and the Kakap in West Natuna in the South China Sea.

Aside from the two producing blocks, Santos operates two exploration blocks, Madura Offshore and the Sampang PSCs, in East Java, which are scheduled to start production in the near future.

Santos reported that Sampang?s Oyong field development was approximately 38 percent complete at the end of the second quarter, with first oil production anticipated by late 2005 or early 2006. During the quarter the wellhead platform was installed and the development wells are currently being drilled.

Santos has launched tender for the gas export pipeline and installation contract for the Oyong field. Gas production from the field is scheduled to start in early 2007.

Meanwhile, development drilling at Maleo gas field of the Madura Offshore PSC is expected to start during the first quarter of 2006. First gas production from the field is expected to come in the second half of 2006 using a converted jack-up rig.

Santos also said it had completed two seismic survey programs at the two blocks in East Java. It planned to start exploration in three wells -- Banjar Panji, Nyari (Nuri) and Herbras -- in East Java in the third quarter of the year. (Robert)