WoodMac: Repsol’s Indonesia find beats Dorado discovery in Australia

Repsol’s new discovery located onshore Indonesia could surpass the Dorado offshore oil find in Australia, according to energy intelligence group Wood Mackenzie. 

Namely, Repsol and partners Petronas and Moeco have recently made the largest gas find in Indonesia in eighteen years. According to Repsol, the discovery is also among the ten largest finds worldwide in the last twelve months. The KBD-2X well in South Sumatra provides preliminary estimation of at least 2 TCF of recoverable resources.

The discovery was made in the Sakakemang block in South Sumatra, where Repsol, as operator, holds a 45% working interest. Petronas owns 45% and Moeco the remaining 10% interest.

Further appraisal is required to determine the extent of the discovery and firm up resource estimates and Repsol will continue the exploratory work in the coming months with an additional planned appraisal well.

In response to Repsol’s Indonesian gas discovery, Wood Mackenzie’s Andrew Harwood, commented: “At 2 tcf, the KBD-2X discovery is the largest discovery in Indonesia since ExxonMobil discovered the Cepu oil field in 2001. It would also surpass the largest discovery in Asia Pacific in 2018, the Dorado oil discovery in Australia. In fact, KBD-2X ranks in the top five discoveries globally over the last 12 months. We also believe there’s potential for the volume estimate to increase as appraisal of the find progresses.”

It is worth noting that the Santos-operated Dorado oil discovery located offshore Australia has been described as Australia’s biggest oil discovery of the century and one of the largest oil resources ever found on the North West Shelf.

The operator intends to make a final investment decision (FID) for its Dorado oil discovery located in WA-437-P in late 2020. The upcoming drilling of the Dorado-2 and Dorado-3 wells will be instrumental in preparing for the FID in late 2020. Both wells will be drilled using the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up drilling rig.

Fast-track development

Harwood continued: “Repsol and Indonesia are likely to want to fast-track the development of the discovery. We think 2024/2025 is a realistic estimate for first production, and with a resource estimate of 2 tcf, the field could produce around 300 mmcfd for around 15 years.

“Indonesia has recently ramped up efforts to rejuvenate its oil and gas sector by reducing bureaucracy, revising fiscal terms, and opening up the level of data available. This discovery, while not a direct result of those efforts, is well timed. It’ll be up to Indonesia to capitalize on the buzz generated by this discovery to attract further investment and stimulate more activity.

“In the near- to medium- term, this discovery will partially offset declining output from other domestic fields, and reduce the reliance on LNG. Longer term, Indonesia needs to continue to attract explorers, particularly in the more difficult but potentially more prospective Eastern Indonesia basins.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff