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Australia's Pacrim Plans $8m start



Picrim Plans $8m start on Burma oil
Robin Bromby
The Australian
Tuesday November 4 1997
     Brisbane based Pacrim Energy NL is gearing up for a start by April next
year on drilling at two old Burmese oil and gas fields. The company is now
reviewing all seismic data and expects to have its exploration planning
finished by February.
 Pacrim has already signed production sharing contracts with the Myanmar Oil
& Gas Enterprise , the Burmese government agency which controls all
production.
 Block C-1, in the Chindwin Basin, covers 17,000sq km and was operated by
the British owned Indo-Burman Oil Co. before World War 2.
     Until 1920s, Burma was one of the main oil producers in the world.The
field equipment was destroyed by the British forces during the war to deny
oil to advancing Japanese armies and and operations were not re-established
after 1945 because of the post-colonial political uncertainties.
     Managing director Kerry Doble said Pacrim was hopeful the field would
contain about 1 billion barrels of oil. "It?s a giant field" he said.
     Pacrim has already sampled oil" bleeding from shales on a 80km-long
outcrop. Several small wells are operated along the Chindwin River, having
been sunk by the villagers to the depths of between 30m and 60m into the
shale. Oil and gas seeps occur elsewhere on the block.
     In 1991, the South Korean oil refiner Yukong drilled to 2900m but Mr.
Doble believes the main oil reservoir lies at about 4580m. We have learnt
from Yukong's mistakes" he said.
     Pacrim is expecting to spend $8 million  on its first exploration well.
To the South , Pacrim is also working on Block RSF-9, which covers 2545sq km
in the Central Basin, Burma's historical oil and gas producing area.
     Overall, the block has been only lightly explored. It contains the
Pyalo gas field, which was suspended five years ago and which Pacrim is
looking at reopening to supply gas to a nearby cement plant. The 50m million
barrel Pyay oil field is also nearby.
      Pacrim is aiming at several known but unseated oil and gas reservoir
formations. Pacrim exploration team includes former MOGE chief geologist U
Gang Lyeng plus four MOGE staffers with knowledge of the fields and who have
been seconded to the Australian company.