1. Unocal's Unocal Sulu agreed with a Philippine-centered exploration group headed by Alcorn (Production) Philippines to take a look at the Galoc prospect in northwestern Palawan. If it likes the prospect, Unocal could farm into an exploration and development position. Unocal expects to take as much as 9 months to study the prospect before moving to a more detailed technical analysis. Galoc is a 1981 discovery at 1,100 ft (335 m) with an estimated 30 million to 50 million bbl of oil, according to Ogilvie's E&P Daily.

2. Murphy Oil Co. found success at its Kikeh No. 3 well in Block K offshore Sabah, Malaysia. An updip sidetrack confirmed the company's estimate of 400 million to 700 million bbl of oil. The No. 3 well is nearly 2 miles (3 km) from the Kikeh No. 1 discovery well, and logs indicate connectivity through the reservoir. The field is in 4,400-ft (1,342-m) waters.

3. The Conoco Indonesia division of ConocoPhillips is prequalifying contractors to convert a vessel into the world's first liquefied petroleum gas floating storage and offloading vessel on its Belanak field in its Block B in the South Natuna Sea. It received submissions of interest in January, and it wants first liquids in 2004.

4. Pertamina estimated gas reserves at about 22 Tcf after analyzing appraisal wells at Donggi field in Central Sulawesi province. The company is talking with Marathon Oil Co. about marketing gas from the field in the United States after building two liquefied natural gas plants with a capacity of about 3 million tons each.

5. Indonesia's Pertamina claimed the discovery of 590 Bcf of gas and 230 million bbl of oil after drilling several wells near Gunung Kemala village in Muara Enim district in South Sumatra. The discovery nearly triples the 120 million bbl of oil reserves Pertamina controls in 32 active fields in South Sumatra and gives a considerable boost to the company's 3.68 Tcf of gas reserves.

6. Santos is setting up its US $75 million Oyong oil and gas project in its Sampang production-sharing contract area offshore East Java, probably with two or three gas wells producing through an unmanned offshore platform through a pipeline to an onshore gas processing plant. Santos wants the operation running in 2004.

7. Santos Ltd. subsidiary Santos (Madura Offshore) Pty. Ltd. supported its Maleo-1 discovery with the Maleo-2 confirmation well 140 miles (225 km) east of Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, southeast of the island of Madura. The confirmation well tested at 30.2 MMcf/d of gas through a 2-in. choke with 444 psi of flowing tubing pressure from perforations between 1,913 ft and 1,945 ft (583 m and 593 m). The well is 1.3 miles (3 km) northwest of the discovery and 7 miles (11 km) from the Pagerungan gas pipeline to Surabaya. Santos is operator with 75% of the prospect, and Talisman (Madura) Ltd. has the remaining
fourth.

8. Continental Energy Corp. plans further work on its Yapen block offshore Irian Jaya. The program it presented to Indonesia's BPMigas calls for processing 2-D seismic data acquired in 2001, reinterpreting seismic over the block and drilling one exploratory well over the best prospect. It anticipates a cost of US $7 million for the completed and tested well and a $6.25 million dry-hole cost. Continental Energy Yapen Ltd. retains a 10% carried interest in the block after farming out 90% and operating rights to PT Exspan Indonesia.

9. Santos found hydrocarbon shows through a 190-ft (58-m) interval and a 98-ft (30 m) oil column at its Bilip-1 wildcat in PPL 190 in Papua New Guinea's southern highlands. The well is 6 miles (10 km) southeast of Southeast Gobe oil field. The company estimates reserves of 20 million bbl of oil for the field.

10. Woodside Petroleum is drilling its Argos-1 exploratory well in the Dampier subbasin offshore Western Australia with the Ensco 56 rig. The well has a potential 11 million bbl of oil. If it is commercial, Woodside can tie it back to the Legendre field production platform.

11. Santos Ltd.'s Mutineer field in WA-191-P on the North West Shelf offshore Western Australia may hold 50 million to 120 million bbl of oil reserves, according to company estimates. The company drilled the Mutineer-3 appraisal well and tapped 6,600 b/d of oil through a 40/64-in. choke in the Angel Formation between 10,322 ft and 10,332 ft (3,146 m and 3,149 m).

12. Novus Petroleum plans to farm in to Magellan Petroleum Australia's ATP 613P and ATP Application 674P blocks in the Maryborough Basin some 125 miles (200 km) north of Brisbane, Australia, along the coast between Bundaberg and Gympie. Under the agreement, Novus can earn a half interest in both blocks by carrying Magellan in up to two wells.

13. The government of Australia's Queensland province OK'd a production license for the Santos (51%) and Mosaic Oil (49%) Churchie gas field. The companies want to hook the gas field into the Queensland gas grid.

14. Santos Ltd. received governmental approval for a seismic survey in the Otway Basin in the Bass Strait off western Victoria, Australia, over objections that the survey could harm blue whales.