Lundin Malaysia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swedish oil and gas company Lundin Petroleum, has found oil in the Ara-1 well in Block PM308A, offshore of Peninsular Malaysia.
Lundin drilled the well to a total depth of 4,030 metres using jackup rig West Courageous at a water depth of 75 metres.
The company said the objective of the drilling is to target the extension of the Paleogene intra-rift oil sands, which was discovered in the Janglau-1 well by Lundin in 2011.
During the drilling, Ara-1 encountered nine thin oil-bearing sands in a high-pressured intra-rift section that extend over a vertical interval of 800m.
Ara-1 has established the extension of the new intra-rift oil play across a large structural complex in the north-east of PM308A, situated underneath a significant regional seal.
The well also encountered useful sand reservoirs at depths below 3,500 metres, while the oil pay zones intersected by Ara-1 were individually thinner than pre-drill analysis.
After completing the well evaluation programme, Lundin plugged and abandoned Ara-1 as an oil discovery well, and commenced estimating the range of discovered resources.
The company plans to include the well results into the newly extended regional 3D seismic data set, which will allow it to locate areas where local sand reservoir sources are better developed and provide high grade future drilling prospects.
Upon the completion of Ara-1, which will mark Lundin Petroleum’s 2012 drilling campaign, the West Courageous jackup rig will be demobilised, Lundin said.
Lundin Malaysia BV operates the PM308A production sharing contract (PSC) with 35% equity interest.
Other partners in the project include JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Peninsular Malaysia) and PETRONAS Carigali, with 40% and 25% interest, respectively.
Image: The company said the objective of the drilling is to target the extension of the Paleogene intra-rift oil sands. Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos / suwatpo.
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