Arco/Kanematsu group and operatorship for Arco in February 1995 in return for funding the drilling of a well. Offshore appraisal subsequently demonstrated that the Wiriagar anticline was indeed a large gas-bearing structure. Geophysicist Stephen Scott joined the exploration team in December 1994. In addition to producing the maps on which the Wiriagar Deep appraisal locations were selected, Scott worked with Casarta and Sampurno to refine the regional geological picture. Previous Total, Occidental and Arco maps had contoured some small closures to the east of Wiriagar. Scott put all the regional data together, and conceived that the closures could be part of one large anticline parallel to and immediately east of the Wiriagar fold. The new closure was named Vorwata. Vorwata had a potential technical problem: At Jurassic level, it was several thousand feet deeper than the Wiriagar anticline, and generally accepted wisdom was that porosity would be low and reservoir quality poor. John Duncan became exploration VP of Arco Indonesia in 1992, and in addition to managing the Indonesian exploration program was also a technical expert on burial history analysis. Recognizing that there might be a more optimistic scenario for Vorwata Jurassic reservoir quality, Duncan consulted with Alton Brown of Arco's geoscience technology group in Plano. Brown analyzed burial history, facies controls and diagenesis, and concluded that conventional wisdom was wrong and reservoir quality would be fine. That analysis gave Arco the confidence to push Vorwata as a viable drilling target to expedite certification of gas reserves. Vorwata No. 1 was drilled in late 1996, Brown's porosity prediction was exactly correct, and the well tested at in January 1997. Subsequent appraisal confirmed that Vorwata was a significant gas accumulation. The Wiriagar Deep/Vorwata complex, together with satellite gas accumulations, has now been named Tangguh by the Republic of Indonesia. After 25 wells, 500 pressure measurements, more than a mile of cores and a 3-D seismic survey, DeGolyer & MacNaughton in mid-1998 estimated Tangguh to contain at least 24 TCF of reserves. If it wasn't for a small group of determined individuals the Tangguh LNG Project may never been. See also Energy in Indonesia References External links BP Indonesia - Tangguh LNG Project website AAPG Wildcat Recollections Columns Natural gas fields in Indonesia Geography of West Papua (province) BP oil and gas fields