Unocal, ENI find ?significant? oil, gas pay offshore E.Kalimantan

US oil and gas firm Unocal Corporation announced Tuesday that its Unocal Rapak, Ltd., subsidiary had drilled two successful exploration appraisal wells on the Ranggas prospect in the southern portion of the Rapak Production-Sharing Contract (PSC) area, offshore East Kalimantan.

Unocal Rapak has drilled two additional wells as a follow-up to the initial discovery announced in January 2001. Both wells encountered significant oil and gas pay.

The Ranggas-2 well encountered 155 of net oil pay and 118 feet of net gas pay, while the Ranggas-3 well encountered 306 feet of net oil pay and 123 feet of net gas pay.

Based on drilling to date, Unocal estimated the gross unrisked resource potential for the Ranggas structure is between 190 million barrels- of-oil-equivalent (MMBOE) and 650 MMBOE.

``We are extremely encouraged by the significant oil component of the Ranggas discovery,'' said Charles R. Williamson, Unocal chief executive officer. ``Our Kutei basin program has been extremely successful, but until now we have found more gas than oil. Given Ranggas and the 'look-alike' adjacent prospects that we have developed, we are excited about the next phase of our exploration program, which will definitely be oil-focused.''

In the next phase of drilling, Unocal Rapak will drill 4-8 wells beginning late in 2001 or early in 2002 to further delineate the Ranggas discovery and test at least two adjacent prospects. The company expects to determine commerciality and the size of the production facilities in this second drilling phase.

Unocal Rapak is operator of the Rapak PSC area. It holds an 80-percent working interest, while Lasmo Rapak, Limited, a subsidiary of Italian oil giant ENI, holds the remaining 20-percent working interest. (alex)