This success is pushing the one of the world's leading independents to go-ahead with its offshore Indonesia deepwater program.

According to the figures released by UGL, the DST flowed at a daily rate of around 31.3 million cubic feet of gas and 1,917 barrels of condensate. The appraisal well was perforated from a depth of 4,682 metres to 4,731 metres true vertical depth subsea and showed flowing tubing pressure of around 6,545 pounds per square inch through a 32/64-inch choke.

The well was drilled in 1,840 metres of water to a vertical depth of around 5,355 metres. Gehem-2 is located 2.9km south of the Gehem-1 well.

The result of the DST was more than encouraging to Unocal Indonesia president, David Stangor. "The Gehem-2 well results show the primary zone of interest to have a single gas column of greater than 550 feet (168 meters) [and] this single zone has the potential to contain up to 1.5 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas," said Stangor.

The next wells slated for drilling are a deep test on the Gula structure (south of Gehem but still within the Ganal PSC) and the Gehem-3 well, although the latter is only slated for the second quarter of 2004.

UGL is the operator of the PSC and holds an 80% working interest in the field. The balance is held by Eni SpA subsidiary Eni-Ganal.