Unocal strikes gas, oil at Ganal PSC offshore E. Kalimantan

Unocal Corporation said Wednesday its subsidiary, Unocal Ganal Ltd., had made a significant gas-condensate and oil discovery on the deepwater Gehem prospect in the Ganal production-sharing contract area, 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) south of the Ranggas field offshore East Kalimantan.

Unocal said Gehem-1 was drilled in 5,981 feet (1,823 meters) of water to a total vertical depth of 15,241 feet (4,645 meters). ?The well encountered 617 feet (188 meters) of net gas and gas-condensate pay and 18 feet (5 meters) of net oil pay,? said Unocal.

According to Unocal, Gehem-1 is the first of a series of exploration wells that are designed to test the prospectivity of deeper, previously untested intervals underlying previous deepwater discoveries offshore East Kalimantan.

The company said that Gehem has an unrisked resource potential of between 2 and 3 trillion cubic feet of gas equivalent. ?This does not include additional upside from still deeper horizons. The reservoir has the potential for flowing in excess of 100 million cubic feet of gas per day and 5,000 barrels of condensate per day per well,? said Unocal.

"Gehem-1 is potentially the most significant well we have drilled in the deepwater since the Seno discovery well in 1998 because it opens up a new, deeper oil and gas trend for us across our huge acreage holdings in the deepwater Kutei Basin," said Charles R. Williamson, Unocal chairman and chief executive officer. "Gehem-1 showed us that there is an extremely thick, high-quality hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir at previously untested depths."

Unocal Ganal is operator of the Ganal PSC area and holds an 80-percent working interest. Lasmo Ganal, Limited, a subsidiary of Italian oil giant company ENI, holds the remaining 20-percent working interest. (robert)