Indonesia Energy Corporation (IEC) has announced that its joint operation contract (JOC) with Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina has been amended, extending the contract term by five years for the Kruh Block located on the island of South Sumatra in Indonesia.

The term for the JOC has been extended from May 2030 to September 2035.

IEC expects the amended joint operation contract to increase its proved reserves at the block by more than 40%.

In order to maximise production, IEC plans to conduct a workover of the existing Kruh-21 well, which was drilled in 2015.

At the Kruh-28 well, IEC "unexpectedly" discovered a potential natural gas-bearing reservoir between the 976ft and 1,006ft interval with 30ft net thickness.

IEC is now planning to undertake a workover of the K-21 and K-28 wells in the later part of this year, with production scheduled to start in 2024.

In early 2024, a 3D seismic programme comprising data acquisition, processing and interpretation is due to be carried out at the Kruh Block, which covers an area of around 63,000 acres.

IEC expects the seismic programme results to help estimate the size and potential of new oil and gas reservoirs.

IEC president Frank Ingriselli said: "We continue to believe that Kruh Block is a world-class asset and, in order to maximise future production capability, the seismic operations planned across the entire Kruh Block should positively leverage what we have learned from our previous discoveries, including our 2022 gas discovery, and determine the best locations to restart our continuous drilling campaign.”

The company is planning to drill a total of 18 new wells at the Kruh Block by the end of 2026. Of these, four wells have already been completed.

Furthermore, IEC expects to receive an environmental permit for 2D seismic data acquisition at the Citarum Block in the fourth quarter of 2023.