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Premier to send West Lobe platform to Natuna Sea
(Lloyds List Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)PREMIER Oil's West Lobe platform is loading out soon for the Natuna Sea gas field as the London-listed firm finds new resources off Indonesia, writes Martyn Wingrove.
The platform will be heading for the Anoa field, where it will be linked to existing facilities to raise gas production from the maturing field.
Premier is able to push more gas through its pipeline to Singapore, where it is negotiating increasing gas sales volumes for petrochemical and power generation users.
West Lobe is on target to come on line at the end of August and will help Premier reach its target of increasing hydrocarbon production by 10% this year.
'The facilities will be loaded out and installed in April and will be hooked up and ready for development drilling by the end of May,' said Premier in its latest report.
The London-based independent has drilled two successful exploration wells this year, including the Lembu Peteng well, tested last week.
The well in West Natuna block A, where Premier has a 28.7% interest, found six gas zones and an oil reservoir.
It tested two zones at a rate of 8.5m cu ft of gas and 580 barrels of condensate per day and is testing the oil zone soon.
'We were very encouraged by the discovery, which proved up a new exploration play on our Indonesian acreage,' said Premier chief executive Simon Lockett.
His company plans to drill an appraisal well on this and on the Macan Tutul discovery drilled in January as part of its ongoing drilling campaign in the Natuna Sea.
This year Premier also plans to probe the Lukah, Tupai and Ganesha prospects in the area to find new fields to tie into existing infrastructure.
Just north of its Indonesian assets, Premier intends to drill two exploration wells in the Vietnamese blocks 12W and 12E. 'In Vietnam we have two high-impact wells, including a Dua appraisal and one on Blackbird which is an 80m barrel prospect,' said Mr Lockett.
His company will also shoot a 2D seismic survey over these blocks to improve its understanding of the existing Swan gas discovery and of other exploration leads.
Meanwhile, Premier is set to participate in the Froy redevelopment project in Norway, where a 3D seismic survey is underway through Fugro Geoteam.
Premier and Norwegian partner Pertra are considering options to redevelop the field, which was closed down in 2001, through a new platform or a tie back to existing infrastructure. 'We are looking at redeveloping Froy and planning is underway for project sanction by January 2007,' said Mr Lockett.
'We are doing screening exercises and subsurface work to see whether we need dry or wet trees.'
Development options could depend on the cost and availability of drilling rigs, which is part of the decision whether to go for a wellhead platform or subsea wells.
A plan for development and operation for Froy could be submitted to the Norwegian government next year.
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