Oilex Ltd says that the Pendalian-3 well spudded at 00.00 hours on 28 September. Current operations are drilling pilot hole to 196 ft. The well is located in the West Kampar Production Sharing Contract Area, Central Sumatra Indonesia. Drilling operations are planned to take 13 days following which the well will be cased and a comprehensive 14 day, multi-zone testing program will be undertaken.

Pendalian-3 will appraise the oil field discovered in 1993 by the Pendalian-1 well, a cored slim hole which encountered a number of oil zones at depths ranging from 250 metres to 500 metres. Two shallow zones in the Sihapas Sandstone flowed oil from cased hole tests in Pendalian-1, one at 530 barrels per day. The testing program is planned to commence with deeper zones which appear to be less well developed and were not tested in the earlier wells. Successively shallower zones, including the productive reservoir confirmed previously in Pendalian -1 will be tested towards the end of the program.

If commercial productivity is confirmed by the cased hole testing program planned in Pendalian-3, the West Kampar Joint Venture plans to acquire a 3D seismic survey over the Pendalian Field and a number of satellite structures and to accelerate development. Shallow, low cost wells and the proximity to infrastructure are attractive incentives for the rapid development of the field. Early cash flow generated by Pendalian production will be applied to the exploration of highly prospective trends that have been recognized on the block.