Indonesia details acreage open for bidding

• Indonesia's 1996 Acreage Offering [37886 bytes]

Indonesia's state owned Pertamina has opened its 1996 tender of acreage available for exploration and development through joint ventures with foreign partners.

Included in the offering are three tracts in Indonesia's eastern frontier on which Pertamina is seeking production sharing contracts (PSCs). The blocks qualify for incentives Pertamina introduced in December 1993 to boost interest in underexplored areas.

That incentive package is available for onshore and offshore acreage in eastern Indonesia-except for tracts in the Salawati, Bintuni, and Seram basins-and for frontier acreage in western Indonesia.

Pertamina says the pace of exploration and development by foreign companies in partnership with the state company shows Indonesia's mix of terms and prospects is attractive compared with oil and gas opportunities in other parts of the world.

Although geological data are sparse in eastern Indonesia, companies working in the geologically complex region recently have reported pre-Tertiary discoveries at several sites.

Also in its 1996 tender, Pertamina is seeking PSCs on three tracts in western Indonesia. The company, in addition, is offering 23 areas for exploration through direct negotiations, including 22 blocks for PSCs and one for a joint operating agreement (JOA), and two tracts for development through technical assistant contracts (TACs).

Frontier tracts

Two of the eastern frontier tracts-Sabo and Rabe offshore blocks-included in Indonesia's 1996 tender are in the Southeast Timor Sea region, about midway between Timor Island and the Indonesian-Australian Zone of Cooperation (ZOC) in Timor Gap.

Sabo covers an area of about 4,570 sq km and Rabe 6,500 sq km.

The third frontier tract in eastern Indonesia, Kaimo, covers 10,000 sq km onshore in Irian Jaya, near the Arafuru Sea coast.

Terms covering exploration and development on the eastern frontier tracts allow contractors to retain 35% of net oil production and 40% of net gas production. Earlier incentives allowed companies:

• 20% of net oil production on frontier acreage and 25% of net oil produced in more than 1,500 m of water.

• 40% of net gas produced on frontier acreage and 45% of net gas produced in more than 1,500 m of water.

Limited seismic data and geophysical reports on Sabo and Rabe are available. Included in data packages for the Southeast Timor Sea are 1,530 line km of regional seismic data collected by Pertamina in December 1992.

Data interpretation has revealed unconformities, seismic sequences, interval reflection patterns, and regional structure in the area. Pertamina said Paleozoic and Mesozoic depocenters in the Indonesian Timor Sea indicate the possible existence of hydrocarbon kitchens.

In addition, the Geco Prakla unit of Schlumberger Oilfield Services in 1995-96 acquired 3,408 line km of 2D seismic data whose grids merge with about 2,000 line km of seismic data on the Australian Timor Sea.

Geco Prakla acquired the data in cooperation with Indonesia's Directorate General of Oil & Gas.

Seismic and well data and geological and geophysical reports also are available on Kaimo.

Similarities with ZOCA

Pertamina said available evidence shows strong geologic similarities between areas covered by Sabo and Rabe and ZOC Area A (ZOCA).

Phillips ZOC unit of Phillips Petroleum Co. and partners in early May said 2 Bayu appraisal on ZOCA Block 91-13, about 185 miles northwest of Australia, cut a thin, productive hydrocarbon section above 10,417 ft total depth, extending the eastern flank of Bayu gas/condensate field. Partners plugged the $6.5 million hole without testing.

Phillips and its partners in mid-May planned to spud their 4 Bayu appraisal well, with a fifth well planned in fourth quarter 1996.

Partners are studying several scenarios for developing Bayu, including a program based on an onshore liquefied natural gas facility using Phillips technology.

The group's 1 Bayu wildcat in January 1995 flowed 90 MMcfd of gas and 5,250 b/d of condensate from Jurassic Montara and Plover sands at a site in 236 ft of water on Block 91-13. In February 1996, the 2 Bayu appraisal well in 292 ft of water 3.7 miles northwest of 1 Bayu flowed 35 MMcfd of gas and 2,100 b/d of condensate from a 492 ft gross hydrocabon interval above 10,492 ft total depth.

Phillips ZOC holds a 37.5% interest in Block 91-13; Oryx (ZOC) Energy Pty. Ltd. unit of Oryx Energy Co., Dallas, 25%; Bridge Oil Timor Sea Inc. unit of Parker & Parsley Petroleum Co., Midland, Tex., 22.5%; and Hardy Timor Gap Petroleum Ltd. unit of Hardy Oil & Gas plc., U.K., 15%.

In addition, the series of Elang and Undan discoveries on another ZOCA tract by a group led by BHP Petroleum Pty. Co. Ltd. indicate potential of eastern Indonesia's pre-Tertiary geology, Pertamina said.

Pre-Tertiary highlights

Companies working in eastern Indonesia have established oil production from Tertiary pay in the Salawati, Bintuni, and Seram basins.

Pre-Tertiary formations also appear productive in the eastern frontier, where PSC contractors are appraising discoveries at Seram Island and Irian Jaya.

The Kufpec (Indonesia) Ltd. unit of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Corp. and partner ARCO Indonesia Oil & Gas Co. in fourth quarter 1996 plan to spud their 2 Oseil appraisal well on the 1.883 million acre Seram block. At last report, partners had cleared 2 Oseil's location and built a road of about 20 miles from the coast to the drillsite.

The discovery well on the tract, 1 Oseil, in 1994 flowed a combined 6,850 b/d of oil on drillstem tests of two Jurassic Manusela limestone zones (OGJ, July 3, 1995, p. 18).

Operator Kufpec holds a 40% interest in the Seram PSC and ARCO 52.5%.

ARCO said partners delayed appraising the discovery because of commercial issues involving a shallow oil field in the area operated by Australia's Santos Ltd.

ARCO in addition is operator of the Wiriagar Deep play involving two PSC areas onshore and offshore Irian Jaya.

ARCO and partners are delineating the Mesozoic Wiriagar Deep discovery with a series of wells on the Berau block, mostly off Irian Jaya in Bintuni Bay. The program is appraising intervals at 6,000-10,000 ft indicated in late 1994 at 1 Wiriagar Deep wildcat. The discovery flowed 90 MMcfd of gas from Triassic sandstone on the Wiriagar block, an onshore tract in western Irian Jaya adjacent to Berau.

Atlantic Richfield Wiriagar Inc. holds a 80% interest in the Wiriagar PSC and the KG Wiriagar Petroleum Ltd. unit of Japan's Kanamatsu company the other 20%. Partners on the Berau block are operator Atlantic Richfield Berau Inc. with a 48% interest, KG Berau Petroleum Ltd. 12%, Occidental Berau of Indonesia Inc. 22%, and Nippon Oil Exploration (Berau) 18%.

On Berau, partners last December logged a flow of more than 100 MMcfd of gas from six intervals on drillstem tests of the 2 Wiriagar Deep appraisal well. In February 1996, 3 Wiriagar Deep flowed about 35 MMcfd of gas, again on drillstem tests of multiple zones.

Berau partners plan to test their 4 Wiriagar Deep appraisal well later this month and spud two more offshore appraisals on the block this year.

The group is using the Deep Sea Ice drillship for the offshore appraisal program.

Appraisal is to begin onshore in mid to late summer, when ARCO and Kanamatsu spud the first appraisal well on their Wiriagar tract.

Oxy on tests of its 1 Roabiba wildcat in the early 1990s gauged a flow of about 24 MMcfd of gas from some of the same zones targeted by the Wiriagar Deep drilling program.

Pertamina also lists as significant Mesozoic discoveries in eastern Indonesia the 1 Loku wildcat in the Maluku Sea and the 1 South Onin wildcat off Irian Jaya. The 1 Loku flowed 1.7 MMcfd of gas on tests of Permo-Triassic fractured granite basement, and 1 South Onin flowed 3.5 MMcfd of gas from Cretaceous Upper Kemblengan sandstone, the state company said.

Copyright 1996 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.