Yves Grosjean, general manager of TEPB, emphasised though that it is still in an early stage and might be too soon to tell.
Grosjean said: "We would say there is good indication of commerciality but it won't be immediate as it will require a new phase of development of the field."
He told The Brunei Times in a telephone interview yesterday that the time it takes just to construct and install a new platform, which is required, will take three to four years.
Total in a statement on Tuesday said that during their tests, 10 million cubic feet of gas and 220 barrels per day of condensate were produced, from a zone situated at 5,350m depth.
However, Grosjean said that the production tests they have carried out do not represent the full extent of what the well will produce during commercial production because only a limited part of the reservoir was tested.
"There is more data to be acquired for us to fully carry out the model of the field. The other data will be enough to bridge the gap to compute future production, but it's too early to say anything now," he added.
Grosjean explained that the findings from ML-5 tell of gas at high pressure conditions in the earth and contains significant amounts of liquid dissolved in it.
"Therefore, during production process, we recovered a large volume of gas but also interesting volumes of liquids which we call condensate, which is actually liquid petroleum," said Grosjean, adding that the content of the liquid is normal for a well.
He went on to say that condensate is liquids which are dissolved in the gas when it is at a pressure down in the earth.
"So when we produce this gas, which is rich in liquids during the process, we can extract the liquid and this process is condensation. Just as steam condensates to become water," he explained.
On Tuesday, Total's statement said that the ML-5 well, the deepest ever drilled in Brunei, located offshore in Block B.
It discovered gas with condensate in High Pressure/High Temperature formations (HP/HT), with a total vertical depth of 5,664m.
"It is a beauty to be producing at such great depth and pressure and it is indeed (where) you normally find gasses which are rich in liquids," said Grosjean.
Total claims this is the deepest successful test in Southeast Asia and the gross thickness of hydro-carbon bearing formation exceeds 800m.
The ML-5 well is the third positive well of an exploration campaign which started in 2007, targeting the deep HP/HT horizons of the Maharaja Lela structure.
"The development of the new resources and production through the existing facilities is currently being studied," said Total.
Total operates the Maharaja Lela/Jamalulalam field with a 37.5 per cent interest. Its average production of gas and condensate was more than 28,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day last year. The Brunei Times
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