Lion Energy completes AMT-1 discovery well in North Sumatra Basin

Lion Energy has reported that the Amanah Timur discovery well (AMT-1) has been plugged and abandoned at a depth of 347 million kilobase (KB) due to failure to free the stuck drill pipe.

The well was spud on 3 January this year.

The company had planned to drill to a total depth of 570 million KB to analyse the two deeper objectives.

Lion Energy is currently working with operator Renco Elang Energy (REE) on forward plans to appraise the discovery, which is located in the North Sumatra Basin oil and gas province.

As previously reported, high gas levels and some oil shows were encountered in AMT-1, with up to four gas zones and some potential oil zones interpreted from fluorescence shows and gas analysis.

Gas flared during the well control operations and was interpreted to be from the well-developed ‘700’ sandstone intersected from 336 million KB to a total depth of 347 million KB.

Lion CEO Kim Morrison said: “Whilst Lion is clearly disappointed that we were unable to evaluate and test all objective intervals in AMT-1, further appraisal and testing is planned.

“The decision to plug and abandon the well was a prudent one as it become apparent we would be unable to free the stuck pipe and it was important to ensure interpreted hydrocarbon zones were isolated.

“The results confirm the highly prospective nature of our South Block A PSC and we will ensure the issues encountered drilling AMT-1 are mitigated as we work on accelerating appraisal activities in this attractive block.”

The joint venture will work with the Indonesian regulator to assess the commercialisation options of the well and speed up the appraisal.

Future appraisals will test the deeper ‘800’ and ‘900’ sandstone objectives that were not reached in AMT-1.

The overall well cost is still evaluated by the operator, but expected to be less than the budgeted well cost of $1.3m ($530,000 net to Lion).

Lion holds 40.7% interest in the South Block A PSC, while the remaining stake is with REE along with the operatorship.