文章基本信息

标题：Arco, Indonesia find shown as one of largest this decade
作者：Gregory J. Wilcox Los Angeles Daily News
期刊名称：Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City)
印刷版ISSN：0737-5468
出版年度：1997
卷号：Sep 5, 1997
出版社：Journal Record Publishing Co.

Arco, Indonesia find shown as one of largest this decade

Gregory J. Wilcox Los Angeles Daily News

LOS ANGELES -- A natural gas field jointly operated by Atlantic Richfield and the Indonesian government has proved to be one of the world's largest finds of its kind this decade.

Analysis of test well data by Arco's petroleum engineering consultant, DeGolyer & MacNaughton of Dallas, shows that the field in eastern Indonesia contains more than 13 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- equal to 2.2 billion barrels of oil -- and another 6.5 trillion cubic feet in possible reserves.

It's the third-largest discovery of hydrocarbons in Arco's history, surpassed only by the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River oil discoveries in Alaska during the 1960s.

Arco said it will spend "several hundred million" dollars to develop the field, which it discovered in 1995.

This also signals Arco's entry into the highly competitive liquefied natural gas business in Southeast Asia. The company now becomes a player in a market dominated by Mobil and Total SA of France.

The first order of business for Arco is finding customers for the natural gas, said company spokesman Albert Greenstein.

"This is the very early phase of a very major project," he said.

Arco is a partner in the project with Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, two Japanese energy companies and Pertamina Indonesia, the world's largest marketer of liquefied natural gas.

Arco will develop and operate the field and could get up to 35 percent of its yield.

This could eventually increase the company's worldwide natural gas reserves by 50 percent, Greenstein said.

Plans call for the gas to be brought to the surface, where it will be liquefied, pumped into special pressurized tankers, shipped to market and de-liquefied.

Product could be shipped to market starting in 2003.

"That's really a world-class deposit, a very significant event," said Pete Stark, director of research and business development at Houston-based Petroleum Information/Dwight's.