Australia's Roc Oil announced Tuesday that it has flowed oil from its first appraisal well, Bentara-2, offshore Sarawak.
The well, which was completed and perforated over a 20-foot (6-meter) interval between 8,743 to 8,736 feet ((2,665 to 2,671 meters), flowed medium gravity oil of 30 degrees API.
Bentara-2 has now been shut-in and will await the arrival of an early production vessel to conduct extended production testing of the remaining reservoirs.
Roc has identified up to 14 reservoir sections in the well from logging data, with a total hydrocarbon pay potential in excess of 328 feet (100 meters).
The company is at present preparing to move the drill rig to the Balai field; an oil and gas field sited 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of Bentara for the drilling of the Balai-2 well.
Roc operates the two wells under BC Petroleum (BCP); a entity incorporated to manage the Balai Cluster Risk Service Contract (RSC). BCP is a contractor group which comprises of Roc (48%), Dialog Group (32%) and Petronas Carigali (20%).
The Balai Cluster RSC consists of four offshore oil and gas fields: Balai, Bentara, West Acis and Spaoh. The pre-development phase for the RSC started early this year and is expected to be completed by mid-2013. Roc said in a Sept. 11 statement that the BCP will submit a field development plan on successful completion of the pre-development phase and agreement on commercial viability of the fields.
