RH Petrogas has commenced drilling operations at the Northwest Klagagi-1 (NWK-1) well under the Kepala Burung Production Sharing Contract (PSC) in Southwest Papua, Indonesia, marking another step in its ongoing gas development and exploration programme.
The well was spudded on 25 June 2026 by Petrogas (Basin) Ltd., the company's 82.65%-owned subsidiary. Located in the Arar block, around 15 km northeast of the Arar production cluster, NWK-1 is planned to reach a total depth of approximately 6,700 ft (2,000 m).
Drilling activities are being carried out using RH Petrogas' own rig, with the operation expected to take approximately 36 days to complete.
NWK-1 has been planned as a combined development and exploration well. Its primary objective is to support the development of gas resources within the upper Kais Formation. Once the development phase is completed, drilling will continue into deeper formations to assess additional hydrocarbon potential in the lower Kais Formation, the Oligocene-aged Sirga Formation and the underlying Devonian-aged Basement.
The drilling campaign forms part of the firm's work commitment under the Kepala Burung PSC and is intended to advance both near-term production opportunities and longer-term resource evaluation within the contract area.
Mr. Francis Chang, Group CEO and Executive Director, commented, "NWK-1 aims to advance the development of existing gas resources while evaluating additional growth opportunities within the contract area. Although drilling of the well has commenced later than initially planned, the delay created an opportunity to deploy the rig for well intervention activities in the nearby Arar block. Workovers were carried out on three wells, all of which were successful and delivered incremental production gains."
The successful workover programme in the nearby Arar block provided additional production before the drilling rig was mobilised for the NWK-1 campaign, supporting the company's strategy of optimising existing assets while pursuing further exploration potential within the PSC.
