Proven Oil Finder*

One of the biggest achievements of an exploration geologist who works for an oil company is if his/her proposed well strucks oil or gas zones. This achievement may not happen once in a year, perhap even only once in 5 years of your career, because circumstances make your company not able to drill many exploration wells.

Drilling an exploration well is an expensive program, it can cost a company around U$2 million to drill an offshore well in the middle of nowhere ocean, perhaps more if it is remotely located. For some companies, spending US$2 million blindly certainly is not something they want to do. They often want to rank the proposed drilling proposal and compare the possibility of success of one well againts each other and then decide in which basket they want to put their corporate money in.

To get your well proposal considered, firstly you need to convince your direct line manager and then your colleagues from other departments and later on you also have to convince your local president of the company. If you are working for a company which is controlled from abroad (let's say the headquarter is in London, while you are working in Indonesia), then you will have to give the General Manager, Vice President of Global Exploration or whatever they are, the reasons why you want your well proposal approved.

So, the bottom line is, asking for corporate money to drill an oil well is simply not easy, therefore you have to prepare everything correctly and thoroughly to get support. When my ex-colleague told me his well proposal was approved and they were preparing to drill it, I was happy for him. Few days ago, the drilling result was released, here it is:

23 March - Drilling update - Lembu Peteng

Indonesia

Premier is pleased to announce a discovery on Natuna Sea Block A in Indonesia with its operated Lembu-Peteng 1 well.

The well targeted sands in the Arang, Pasir, Intra Barat, and Upper Gabus. Log data indicates the presence of 6 gas zones, and 1 oil zone.

A test has been completed on two of the gas zones, which has yielded 8.5 mmscf/d of gas plus 580 bpd of high quality condensate. A further test of the oil zone will follow shortly.

The Lembu-Peteng discovery lies approximately 14 km to the East of the producing KH field and there are follow-up prospects on the trend.

Premier is the operator of West Natuna Block A with a 28.67% interest, and the other partners in the block are Kufpec (33.33%), Amerada Hess (23%) and Petronas (15%).

A further update will be provided on completion of testing operations.

It has been confirmed that his well has got oil and gas zones, which means he is successful in making a discovery and adding more value to the company's shares. He should be proud of his achievement regardless the size of this discovery. At least, all his thoughts and ideas leading to choosing this location for drilling have been proven correct, whether or not it is economical, it will be somebodyelse' decission. My ex-colleague now can have this "Proven Oil Finder" tag on his shoulder.

* Celebrating the success of Doddy Yuliong BA in making Lembu Peteng-1 Oil & Gas Discovery for Premier Oil Indonesia.