anbz, damn...you are really ignorant. Kazakhstan has bitumen yes, in fact they have lots of mineral. But Sumatec's filed is a proven oil field, with proven oil production data...so, where does this bitumen thing comes from? It's been producing crude oil before, and there's no freaking way suddenly it'll become bitumen. If that so, I can dig a water well behind my grandma house then after a few years can chnage to oil, then after a few more years I can sell bitumen.

Post something with essence la, not pulling stuff out of your ass.

sklyte, what they say....money talks, bullshit walks, haha

Profitman, have to continue posting la, understandably not all in o&g line, kesian la kalau invest hard earned money to something not familiar with, at least I give some input la on whats going on and what the technical terms means. I have no interest in Hibiscus, because it's a high risk venture doing exploration work...but if they strike oil, the investors here will be rich. My risk-reward is a bit low compared to other people.

sklyte, the well that they just drilled was abandoned. This well is a gone case. That's all. They could come back to this well in the future to re-work on it when they have the proper equipments to handle the losses.

This field might still have value, but they need to find and justify the oil reserve, hence the drilling of an exploration well. They can go to a different location and drill again to find and justify the oil reserve, but they better be prepared for the same scenario again with proper equipments and drilling technique, if not the next exploration well can also be abandoned due to similar losses problem.

Re-post:
Problem la with this Rex Virtual Drilling (RVD) technology...even with 3 offset wells previously drilled in this block, the RVD still couldn't figure out that there are 2 potential loss circulation zones in the carbonate formation. That's why the rig was not equipped to handle the losses...they didn't expect it. Dr Ken Pereira, for the sake of your investors, before you drill the 2nd well, please look up Managed Pressure Drilling, specifically using Light Annular Mud to drill underbalance in a loss circulation zone. Dear investors, if Hibiscus didn't say anything about new drilling technique for their next well, then, it's adviseable to abandon this counter for the moment...if not, similar scenario will happen. Ask any geologist if you know any, in a depositional environment, you will have the same carbonate deposited throughout the field. What you see on well MNN1, you will see again in the next location - typically. Unless this is a complex field that I don't know about. Tough jugak jadi investors ni, hard to get technical info from Hibiscus. If they have a public domain where they put the field info for easy access, I would love to have a look at the data, haha.

prc4wifefe, can...they just need to bring a few more equipments that can be incorporated to the current rig package, that's all. Also, need at least 2 KEY (for day 7 night shift) personnel who understands underbalance drilling....it's not the same as conventional drilling.

tewnama, masa tulih post tu, i tak tahu berapa actual rig cost, so just type a few millions je la, hehe.

feifun, read please their announcement in Bursa, they did not manage to get to target depth due to losses in 2 carbonate zones. So, no evaluation on the primary targets. Those oil that they reported are what they saw in the cuttings while drilling to the primary target...yeah, got show in the cuttings or signal response in well log, but those are not commercially produceable. This news was really spun to make them look better...this well had to be abandoned. No objective achieved. The Rex Virtual Drilling technology also supposedly can find oil, but virtually could not recognise the losses zones even though this block has 3 offset wells drilled in the field - they have data from these 3 wells to make some decision/conclusion.

For well #2, the critical thing now is to employ a diffeent approach to drill through the loss circulation zone. If they plan to drill the same conventional drilling technique, then watch out...they'll get the same results.

Below is my previous post:
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1501081

Regarding the announcement above, from my point of view, the losses that they encountered can be handled if they had been prepared for it. Since this is an exploration well, it seems that Hibiscus did not take into account of this scenario. Typically, when you have losses while drilling a well, you will need to pump LCM (Lost Circulation material) in the mud to cure the losses. Since this is carbonate, this means there's micro cavern or big cavern in the carbonates, which means total losses while drilling. There are many operators in this world drilling carbonate with total losses, they use the technology called MPD (Managed Pressure Drilling) which include also a "mud-cap drilling technique". But, you have to be prepared in advanced in order to drill with total losses - with proper equipments. It seems that Hibiscus had to pump cement and plugged the losses zone. This exploration well is considered abandoned. If Hibiscus is planning to drill a second well, they better be prepared with all the equipments to drill in a total losses environment...if not, similar situation will happen again.

In other word, they just spent a few millions USD on drilling this exploration and get zero results. It's unfortunate, but this is the nature of exploration drilling.

I love the way he smiles, haha.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/08/24/Moment-of-truth-beckons-for-Hibiscus.aspx

hai yo, open at 1.40

Problem la with this Rex Virtual Drilling (RVD) technology...even with 3 offset wells previously drilled in this block, the RVD still couldn't figure out that there are 2 potential loss circulation zones in the carbonate formation. That's why the rig was not equipped to handle the losses...they didn't expect it. Dr Ken Pereira, for the sake of your investors, before you drill the 2nd well, please look up Managed Pressure Drilling, specifically using Light Annular Mud to drill underbalance in a loss circulation zone. Dear investors, if Hibiscus didn't say anything about new drilling technique for their next well, then, it's adviseable to abandon this counter for the moment...if not, similar scenario will happen. Ask any geologist if you know any, in a depositional environment, you will have the same carbonate deposited throughout the field. What you see on well MNN1, you will see again in the next location - typically. Unless this is a complex field that I don't know about. Tough jugak jadi investors ni, hard to get technical info from Hibiscus. If they have a public domain where they put the field info for easy access, I would love to have a look at the data, haha.

Sumatec ship has some of the coolest folks around - always supporting each other, haha.

Noraini, that was before research done, after some detailed research and see what Sumatec game plan is, my position changed already, haha

abdulhalim, water injection is for (1) to support pressure of the reservoir and (2) to sweep or displace oil from the reservoir, and push it towards a well. Usually, this program you use in the beginning of the project along with production. But Sumatec punya field is an old field...so, not really effective. The best options to increase production are infill sidetrack drilling and workover on current old wells.

hahaha, Rashid bin Buang, actually I was thinking about submitting my resume to Sumatec mahu mintak kerja....then, pikir pikir, nanti jadik insider trading pulak....so, cancel plan, hahaha.

Chrollo, go to Sumatec website and look at the business plans presentation....the answers are there

step6978, answered your questions already on my post above

vroompower99...minyak still down there, not going anywhere. Even after 10 - 20 years of stop production, if do some infill drilling work, they can still get to the oil not extracted from the old existing wells.

This link below is for those doubters saying that Sumatec punya field don't have minyak. To summarize, average Recovery Factor (RF) worldwide fields is about 22%. That means still have 78% of original-oil-in-place down there. But, can we recover the rest of the 78% of original-oil-in-place? No. With current technology (infill drilling, EOR - enhanced oil recovery), we can probably get additional 20 - 30% depending on what have been done in the first phase of production (solution drive). Sumatec's field Rakushechnoye is an old Soviet field...I doubt that the Soviet did any pressure maintenance during the production life...so, Sumatec's strategy is to extract bypass oil by sidetrack drill infill wells from existing wellbore to area not covered by current existing wells and to do workover on old wells in order to increase production. Best guestimate how much more they can recover probably additional +/- 15-20% of original oil in place. That will be revenue to Sumatec's pocket....Sumatec also plans to add additional fields in the future, so investors should hang on to Sumatec for the long term.

http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-105/issue-41/exploration-development/global-oil-reserves-1-recovery-factors-leave-vast-target-for-eor-technologies.html

ckleaf...Kazakhstan independent in 1993, Chevron enters Tengiz field start JV with Kazmunaigas in 1993...at that time, Chevron is the only foreign operator in Kazakhstan....starting 2000, slowly slowly foreign companies masuk Kazakhstan...I think local companies started to grab old ex-Soviet field around 2003....so, siapa cepat dia dapat...people with connections formed a company and get oil fields and then started looking for funds to operate. In case of Sumatec's field Rakushechnoye, it's an old field in declining mode. So, companies are looking for fresh green fields first...Sumatec masuk 2011 +/-, a bit late to get green field...what options available? old field that has potential for workover/infill drilling....

ckleaf...go and check the field production history...from Sumatec's website....you'll see when the production peak and when start declining...

ckleaf....1974 was during Soviet Union mah...mana ada private company, all own by the USSR. After independent, they started leasing the field out...independent in 1993....so, should I continue? don't want to waste my time la.

hehe guys, I also don't want to invest money in something not clear mah...penat2 kerja atas rig sana sini, nanti duit semua habis pasal kena kelentong sama sharks...this Sumatec is for mid-long term, need to grow with Halim Saad's project. What Sumatec wants to do makes sense and is currently being practice by many many O&G companies. The field is there...the oil is there...the JV agreement is there....already almost clear all the reg requirement to get out of PN17...tunngu 2 more quarter profits then out of PN17...with revenue coming from currnet level oil production and the future gas sales agreement, can get profit....so the future is bright for this counter.

The very least la, if you don't percaya sama Halim Saad, is to just hold this counter until exit PN17...just that event will double or triple your investment. Then, if you believe can grow somemore with Sumatec game plan, continue hold. If not, sell your holdings and watch from sideline.

Always a pleasure to share info with fellow investors, haha

Pareto, no problem, I'm not busy right now, operations also slow down a bit on my side, so can share something with other investors.

NKN1, yup, finding oil means being able to test it and declare how many barrels per day this well can produce at certain choke size....haha, ini newspaper bulat2 makan apa itu Hibiscus punya orang cakap. Finding oil does not mean can see some shows from cuttings or logs signal.....haiya the STAR.

vroompower99...Hibiscus is drilling an exploration well in a field which is not proven to have reserve etc, they only estimate potential reserve based on seismic. That block only had 3 exploration wells drilled in the past and all were abandoned. The risk is very high...you might hit oil, you might not. In Hibiscus first exploration well, they couldn't even get to target depth, had to abandon the well due to losses in carbonate.

Sumatec field is different. It's an old field. It was first drilled in 1974, total 47 wells, with currently 5 wells producing. This field has production history already. The production history has reached its peak and is currently in decline mode. But, worldwide fields usually has a recovery factor of about 22% of the original oil in in place...with only 47 wells covering the area, there are area where the wells did not cover, so there's bypass oil to be extracted. Sumatec wants to drill infill wells from existing old wells to extract the bypass oil. Also, they plan to do workover on older wells to increase production by acidizing, or re-perforating...

This field is owned by a Kazakh company, CaspiOilGas LLP (COG). They just don't have the money to re-start the field i.e start infill drilling & workover. Sumatec just come in with money and some agreement on how to split the revenue etc, you can read in their announcement on this. Probably some other Kazakh companies also approached CaspiOilGas, but they couldn't agreed on the terms & conditions. It seems Halim Saad managed to convince CaspiOilGas to go with him. COG also wants to maximize their profit, so whoever comes up with the best T&C will be their preferance. It's a win-win situation for both I guess, the Kazakh gets rich and Halim Saad can continue with his rich&famous lifestyle.

This will not be another Hibiscus in Oman because:
1) it's a proven field with production history - we know how much they have produced and we know how much oil left in the ground. There's no way to get 100% oil out, but Sumatec has the chance to get additional 10 - 20% of the remaining oil in place.
2) Existing production facilities - dont have to spend additional cash to send money to buyer.
3) Onshore operations - cost is cheaper than offshore. Somemore, in onshore operation, you can produce right away after drill a well. Not like Hibiscus offshore, where you have to build pipeline or facilities etc just to produce and sell oil.
4) Sumatec plans to add additional PROVEN field in the future.
5) CEO and some management are ex-Schlumberger, so they know some about workover operations i.e acidizing, tubing changeout etc.
6) Operations are starting in the field, a rig will start operations mid-January....things are moving.

I am investing in Sumatec...shouldn't a doctor be investing in a pharma company if he knows the company is making a good drug? I think I'm justifying myself that as an oil field thrash, I see a good and bright future in Sumatec....haha

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/12/25/Hibiscus-finds-oil-in-Oman.aspx

This news is really a spin....Hibiscus did not find oil, they didn't reach the final depth to fully evaluate the reservoir. No oil from primary zone, all those shows are from different zones and probably are not even secondary zones. And, they are making finding oil claims based on these oil shows in cuttings/logs...probably minor shows thats why they are not produceable. The proper title of the story should be "Malaysia's Hibiscus failed to find oil in Oman, but found out the real challenges in drilling in Omani carbonates, while drilling of 2nd well should only start after proper equipments procured and proper procedures are established". So many comments from analysts giving prabably this, probably that....they should get the facts from Hibiscus technical team before making any comments. Haiyo, newspaper oh newspaper....

What happened with Hibiscus also justified my decision to invest in Sumatec, which has a proven field, rather than exploration project.

sklyte, no idea why REX didn't mention this, probably it's the operating partner's responsibility? Even though REX is the major shareholder, but they are not the ones operating this project.

sklyte, hard to say la, the decision is usually chosen by a team of geologist, geophysicist, reservoir engr and management. Without looking at the data, I cannot say for sure. There must be something that attracts the team to this...I believe they have a capable team...but, do the team members have any experience with Omani field or Middle east fields or not ???....field in malaysia is different story, our basin is different than over there...

tewkama, semakin dalam lubang you gali, semakin tinggi pressure kat bawah tu kan? Macam menyelam la, semakin dalam semakin rasa nak pekak telinga kena pressure. So, untuk counter high pressure kat bawah tu, bila korek minyak kena pakai drilling fluid yang ada "weight" untuk balance kan high pressure tu. Components of the drilling fluid yang provide kan "weight" - such as "barite". You kena google la apa itu "barite". Baru boleh korek minyak safely. Losses means, ada formation layer yang tak boleh handle drillling mud with "weight" tu. Bila drill saje to that layer, the weight will break the formation and the drilling fluid akan go into the losses formation instead of doing its job to handle the pressure down hole. Bile itu sudah jadi, your well sudah jadi underbalance...nothing to hold the high pressure formation downhole...then, gas/fluid come in to reservoir, well kena kick, and then kabooom, blowout. itulah summary nya, harap clear.

ohkns, Since this is the same field, the same carbonate layer that they encountered losses will be there. Losses can be handled, but they will need special equipment and drilling technique. If Hibiscus team is not prepared, I bet similar situation will happen and they will have to abandon the well again.

muscle, Petronas doesn't have any investment in Kazakhstan, Only Turmenistan and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan they are doing OK, but getting screwed by the corrupted Turkmen government. Uzbekistan, not much oil reserves mainly gas, and they are pulling out and closing shop there.

Let me sorta straighted out some people's conclusion from the first well....we DON't KNOW if the first well have commercially produced oil or not....because, the well they drilled DID NOT get to final TD (Total Depth). They had to abandon the well due to losses...losses is a very serious situation, if you well bore has losses, and you couldn't deal with it, it will become "vacuum" and underbalance, this will result in gas or formation fluid rushing to the wellbore and can cause a kick, which will then result in a blowout....boleh terbakar satu rig, and then it'll be a messy situation.

I concur with Amonnite Shark, Dr. Ken did not deal with any drilling engineering work, at least for the last 15+ years, he interviewed me in 1998, at that time he was already with Sapura in the management side. In the end, he couldn't offer me any position because my asking salary was too much for him....haha, either he was kedekut, or I think I was too damn good at that young age, funny to think about it.

step6978, non-commercial hydrocarbon means not enough oil presence in the sand layer to justify commercial production.

Whoever has connections with Hibiscus operations sold their holdings right after they heard the news. Unfortunate for retailers who are waiting for official announcement....ini sudah kira insider trading...kalau kat USA sudah boleh masuk jail semua ini orang yang jual itu hari....but, Malaysia boleh !

cpng, small operators can exist as they can exploit small and marginal fields. O&G industry is not only for the big giants like Petronas, Shell etc.

Flowerpower....they didn't get to the main objective zones because of total losses. So, zero evaluation. The secondary objectives did not have any oil in it. They better be prepared to drill into a total losses environment on the 2nd well, if not, similar situation will happen again.

http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed-companies/company-announcements/1501081

Regarding the announcement above, from my point of view, the losses that they encountered can be handled if they had been prepared for it. Since this is an exploration well, it seems that Hibiscus did not take into account of this scenario. Typically, when you have losses while drilling a well, you will need to pump LCM (Lost Circulation material) in the mud to cure the losses. Since this is carbonate, this means there's micro cavern or big cavern in the carbonates, which means total losses while drilling. There are many operators in this world drilling carbonate with total losses, they use the technology called MPD (Managed Pressure Drilling) which include also a "mud-cap drilling technique". But, you have to be prepared in advanced in order to drill with total losses - with proper equipments. It seems that Hibiscus had to pump cement and plugged the losses zone. This exploration well is considered abandoned. If Hibiscus is planning to drill a second well, they better be prepared with all the equipments to drill in a total losses environment...if not, similar situation will happen again.

In other word, they just spent a few millions USD on drilling this exploration and get zero results. It's unfortunate, but this is the nature of exploration drilling. Come join Sumatec, they are working on an existing field...no surprises, just do additional drilling and get the black gold out, haha.

derrickinvestor, i prefer cliq, because the management is made up of people from the operator side ( I personally know of the guy who used to work for Petronas). Sona, led by Hadyan and most of the management, is from service providesr side. Operator people knows what to look for in an oil field....my 2 cents.

i use thheavy as sorta reference because thheavy also issued tons of rights, flooded the market before exiting PN17. If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me. But still, thheavy is in different business as Sumatec. Sumatec might be higher?

anything is possible kengfp....right now it's as good as anybody's guess, bear in mind, we don't have an independent o&g company investing in proven field yet to use as reference. Thheavy & barakah all service providers, hibiscus is exploration o&g comapny, sona & cliq still looking for assets. If the sentiment is good, it could go to 1.50

pghk, just based on the sentiment when thheavy exit PN17, I would guesstimate between 0.50 to 0.70 +/-, just a guess ha, nothing more.

Check out Sumatec's site, their vision is: "We want to be the leading Malaysian based Independent Oil & Gas Operator focused on developing proven oil & gas assets." The key word here is PROVEN OIL & GAS ASSETS. Sumatec is not like Hibiscus going for exploration project. PROVEN means there's oil & gas, just need to do some work to extract the oil out. In case of Rakushechnoye field, it is an old field with the possibility to get aditional 15 - 20% of the remaining original-oil-in-place. The field has a proven production history with only 47 wells. There are area where the old wells didn't cover, and SUmatec will do infill drilling by sidetracking from existing old wells - to get all these bypass oil. In addition, there'll be workover work on some of the idle wells to increase production. This might sound like a broken record....but Sumatec is for mid-long term investment only...give some time for Sumatec to develop the Rakushechnoye field. All these prices fluctuation is just a "cobaaaaaaaaannnnnn" as the late P.Ramlee would say it, haha.

the concept to test well doesn't change...maybe newer equipments, but the essence is you poke hole in the reservoir which is at high pressure and let it flow. If it doesn't flow or not good flow, then you dont have good reservoir....concept the same in 1975 and same now in 2013, just maybe with better tools to handle certain operations in well testing.

as per gark's comments above: "Masirah-1 and Masirah-2 wells were drilled in 1975 and 1976 in Block 50, with a third well Maimun-1 drilled in 1984. The wells found shows and good reservoirs in certain geological layers, but no commercial discoveries were made."

This means, when they did well testing on the wells, either the reservoir is tight with low permeability that they could not get a good surface flow, or have flow but not good enough to justify spending money to develop this field. If not, whoever drilled these 3 wells, will continue drilling develeopment welsl to extract the oil.

If already have 3 exploration wells before which we can consider dry hole, why did Hibiscus still wants to drill another exploration well? It'll be good to know who drilled the previous 3 wells - if major operator, then for sure the reserves is not big enough for them to justify development. if small operator, then this filed sucks real bad then.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/12/23/hibiscus-trading-suspended.aspx

haha, to quote from billionaire John Paul Getty, "Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil."

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/j_paul_getty.html

kengfp, hibiscus I don't know what's going on la. I know someone in Hibiscus management team, but they are keeping tight lips on this one. So, we can only speculate either due to results of the 1st exploration well or some more acquisition....can't help you on this one.