Australian company Timor Resources said it will drill three more exploration wells onshore East Timor after certifying 24.2 million barrels of oil and 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas reserves from its first two onshore wells.
“Schlumberger took oil samples for us at depth from Karau and Kumbilli wells. Oil from Karau proved to be 38 API low sulphur light sweet crude. Kumbilli-1 was, almost condensate, 44 API light sweet crude, high quality spec,” Suellen Osborne, chief executive of Timor Resources, told Energy Voice.
Energy Resource Development, principle Rob Bresnahan, certified the 2C resource estimates. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA), said Osborne.
Timor Resources, a privately-owned Australian oil and gas company last October spudded the first onshore well, Karau-1, in more than 50 years in the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Timor Leste, as part of a back-to-back exploration drilling campaign. The second well, Kumbilli-1, was drilled in PSC TL-OT-17-08, also known as Block A.
Three more exploration wells will be drilled, starting this October, added Osborne. The first well will be a drill stem test. This is a procedure for isolating and testing the pressure, permeability and productive capacity of a geological formation during the drilling of a well. The test is an important measurement of pressure behaviour at the drill stem and is a valuable way of obtaining information on the formation fluid and establishing whether a well has found a commercial hydrocarbon reservoir.
“Front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies are well underway, for development of these fields,” said Osborne.
“We will strive to expedite the field development approvals, to establish early oil production within two years,” she added.
“These are exciting times to be working on a project that can be creating jobs and revenues for the nation of Timor Leste, in the near term. Attracting funding for this development and support from the Australian or Chinese governments for debt funding for infrastructure development will be important. The front end cost to have the Kumbilli field in production is approximately US$46 million, inclusive of scalable tank storage and an early export system,” noted Osborne.
Energy Voice previously reported that the plucky explorer was considering an initial public offering (IPO) to raise more funds in its quest to unlock East Timor’s petroleum potential.
This article was updated at 7.45am GMT on 13 June to reflect the certifier of the resources.
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