Earlier this month, the Santos-led joint venture announced that the Wortel-1 discovery well had flowed 18.5 million cubic feet of gas per day with associated condensate on drill stem test through a 56.64-inch choke. This news followed wireline log interpretation suggesting well had encountered a 141m gross gas column in a good quality reservoir.

Located about 1km southeast, Wortel-2 is being drilled vertically in about 1400m of water and is expected to take about 18 days to reach total depth.

Cue has said the gas discovery was particularly encouraging because it was located close to the Oyong oil and gas field, where a platform has been installed and a pipeline was planned to supply gas to a power station at Grati in east Java.

Participants in the Sampang PSC are Santos (with a 40.5% stake), Singapore Petroleum Sampang (36%), Cue (13.5%) and PT Petrogas Oyong Jatim (10%).