By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 15 -- Murphy Oil Corp. has successfully appraised its previously announced Kikeh No. 1 oil discovery on deepwater Block K, off Sabah, Malaysia.
"The results from the Kikeh No. 2 well are excellent and confirm our enthusiasm for this significant discovery," said Claiborne P. Deming, Murphy Oil president and CEO. The discovery well, the first deepwater oil discovery off Malaysia, was drilled this summer and "encountered several hundred ft of high quality oil reservoirs," company officials said in the earlier announcement (OGJ, Aug. 12, 2002, p.39).
"This (appraisal) well was drilled approximately one mile from the discovery well and found the same five primary oil reservoirs full to base, encountering over 400 ft of net pay," Deming said. "We subsequently plugged back and sidetracked the well downdip where we found oil full to base in the same primary reservoirs, with only a secondary sand having an oil water contact," he said.
The rig will now be moved to drill another appraisal well, Kikeh No. 3, which will be almost 2 miles from Kikeh No. 2. "Our primary objective is to size this. . .discovery," said Deming. "It will also allow us to optimize our Blocks K and H drilling campaigns for next year, " he added.
The Kikeh discovery lies in the southern part of Block K in almost 4,400 ft of water. Murphy is operator and holds an 80% interest in Block K and adjoining Block H, which combined cover more than 6 million acres. Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd., the wholly owned exploration and production arm of Petronas, holds the remaining 20%.