By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 5 -- Production began from Oseil field on Seram Island in eastern Indonesia in late December 2002.
Kufpec (Indonesia) Ltd. is operator with 97.5% interest, and Kalrez Energy Ltd., North Adelaide, South Australia, holds 2.5% interest in the Seram Joint Venture.
Early production rates are expected to reach facilities capacity of 12,000 b/d, and peak rate of 15,000 b/d is expected in February 2004.
Oseil operations
The Oseil-1, 2, and 4 wells are producing into temporary facilities. Permanent facilities are expected to be available in April. The permanent facility will dewater and fractionate the crude into 93% high sulfur crude and 7% naphtha, Kalrez said.
For the moment, unprocessed, 22° gravity crude is being sold to BP PLC in Singapore, with the contract price related to Singapore high sulfur fuel oil pricing.
Oseil was a 1993 discovery, and Pertamina approved the development plan in January 2000. Seram Island is in the Bula basin in the Maluku Sea 2,700 km east-northeast of Jakarta. Oseil was the first substantial discovery in pre-Tertiary rocks in eastern Indonesia.
The three vertical wells confirmed an oil column thickness within the fractured Jurassic Manusela carbonate of up to 208 m covering 11.1 sq km some 2,200 m deep.
Oseil is on the practically unexplored, 7,620 sq km Seram Non-Bula PSC. The companies have run geological surveys, more than 10,000 sq km of synthetic aperture radar, 2,403 km of airborne gravity and magnetics, and 1,814 km of modern seismic and identified more than 12 prospects and leads.
A second Oseil development phase envisions production as high as 30,000-35,000 b/d.
Mean reserves are 43-61 million stb of oil from mean oil in place of 122 million stb.
Results are expected by mid-2003 from a 3D seismic survey run in 2002 over Oseil field and extending southeast toward the East Nief well.
Extending Bula field
Meanwhile, Kalrez said the first of two development wells at nearby Bula field had positive results and confirmed potential for further development in the Bula Tengarra region of the field. TD is 255 m.
Oil pumped from the well is 19.4° gravity, typical of Quaternary Basal Fufa production in the area. Bula field averages 520 b/d. The Bula PSC block covers 35 sq km to a depth of 600 m subsea.
Bula, on production as early as 1896, yielded 19.6 million bbl through end-2002 of 76 million bbl of original oil in place, and had remaining recoverable reserves of 1.6 million bbl (OGJ, Nov. 17, 1975, p. 108).
