Muruk sidetrack brings positive signs for PNG LNG expansion

Oil Search, the owner of a 29 percent stake in the PNG LNG project, informed the drilling of the Muruk 1 sidetrack well was completed, confirming gas saturation of the entire Toro reservoir section. 

The Muruk 1 sidetrack, located southwest of the Muruk 1 gas recovery, was drilled to a depth of 4,025 meters.

Oil Search added that the data from logging, cores and pressure samples is currently being evaluated.

Subject to Joint Venture approval, production tests will be undertaken to assess the deliverability and potential flow rates from the Toro. After completion of the final evaluation and testing program, the well will be plugged and abandoned, as planned.

The Muruk drilling program has successfully discovered a potentially significant new gas field, 21 kilometers northwest of the Hides facilities and immediately north of the Juha gas field.

The data from the Muruk drilling program, which included three sidetracks, will be evaluated to assist in designing a potential appraisal program in 2018.

The latest drilling results, together with the latest recertification of the resources in all the PNG LNG fields carried out by Netherland, Sewell and Associates, which resulted in a 50 percent increase in the company’s 1P PNG LNG gas reserves compared to the 2015 reserve booking, support the PNG LNG project’s higher level of production.

Oil Search is the operator of the Muruk gas discovery with a 37.5 percent stake, with units of ExxonMobil and Santos holding 42.5 percent and 20 percent stake, respectively.