Its subsidiary Ranhill Energy, through its 60 per cent interest in Bumi Parahyangan Ranhill Energia Citarum Pte Ltd, won the block in a highly competitive bid.

It was one of 11 blocks offered for tender by the Indonesian Government through a direct offer mechanism.

The Citarum block, located 50 kilometres south-east of Jakarta, covers a large exploration area measuring 4,400 square km in West Java.

It is situated next to numerous onshore and offshore oil and gas producing area of the Northwest Java Basin, where production has already been prolific.

Adjacent fields have yielded in aggregate 3.1 billion barrels of oil and 3.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

"The current well, Pasundan 1, is the first of four wells scheduled for drilling in the Citarum block as part of Ranhill Bhd"s contract to explore this highly prospective and prolific basin," president and chief executive Tan Sri Hamdan Mohamad said in a statement.

He said Pasundan 1 is targeting the Baturaja and Talang Akar formation, together with other secondary targets in the upper Cibulakan and Jatibarang formations.

"This means prospective resources from this prospect are 75 million barrels of oil equivalent," he said.

Ranhill"s current oil and gas investments include a producing gas field about 15km north of Citarum (Jatirarangon TAC), an exploration block in south Sumatra (Jambi Batu Gajah PSC) and two exploration blocks in the Philippines (SC49 and SC64).

PIN/BTIMES.COM