Serica says that on September 1, the Trident IX jack-up drilling rig arrived on location for the Dambus-1 well in the Kutai PSC in the Mahakam Delta offshore East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The well will shortly be spudded and is targeting a sequence of stacked Miocene sands from 1,200 meters subsea to approximately 2,700 meters subsea with estimated gross mean prospective resources of 200 mmboe (60 mmboe net to Serica). Dambus-1 will be Serica's third exploration well in 2010 and the prospect is analogous to the nearby Serang field in which over 800 meters of gross pay sands were recorded. Water depth at the well location is 85 meters and the well is expected to take approximately 40 days to complete.

On completion of Dambus-1 the rig will then immediately move to commence operations at the Marindan exploration prospect in the southern part of the Kutai PSC.

Serica is operator of the Kutai PSC and holds a 30% interest.

Paul Ellis, Chief Executive of Serica commented, "We are pleased to be commencing the Indonesian phase of our 2010 exploration program with the first of two wells in the prolific Kutai basin. These are both material prospects in a producing petroleum province with good commercial terms."

Tags: Serica Energy plc