jointly drill a deep test (Wiriagar Deep No. 1) on the Wiriagar structure. The partners, who had already spent $145 million on the block, declined the proposal. Arco was unwilling to carry the other partners in a deep test despite the attraction of retaining KBSA's sunk cost pool, and no deal was reached among the group. Arco's commercial manager in Jakarta, Thorkild Juul-Dam, then developed an economic case for a new PSC, aided by drilling manager Brett Crawford's analysis that the deep well could be drilled for much less than operator Conoco's cost estimate. The KBSA PSC expired, and Arco began discussions with Pertamina for a new PSC. Crucial to these discussions were Roger Machmud, president of Arco Indonesia, and Larry Asbury, operations corporate vice president. Machmud and Asbury entered into serious negotiations with Pertamina in June 1992. A new onshore Wiriagar PSC covering the deep structure and incorporating newly revised frontier incentives was signed in February 1993. Kanematsu joined Arco as a partner in the block. With help from Richard Leturno of drilling operations, petrophysicist Tony Lawrence and reservoir engineer John Marcou, Wiriagar Deep No. 1 was successfully drilled, logged and tested at in August 1994. The well was initially disappointing, as it was not an oil discovery. However, a thoughtful analysis of pressure data by Larry Casarta and John Marcou indicated that the gas zones were significantly overpressured, and that a gas column height in excess of 2,000 feet was a reasonable interpretation of the data. In other words, the discovery could be large enough to anchor an LNG project even if there was no downdip oil leg below the gas. Tom Velleca, Arco corporate vice president of exploration, encouraged by chief geologist David Nicklin and chief geophysicist Barry Davis, decided to move ahead with appraisal of the Wiriagar Deep discovery -- but there was a commercial obstacle. If Casarta and Marcou were right about the size of the accumulation, much of the field lay to the south on the offshore Berau PSC held by an Occidental-led partnership. Brad Sinex at Arco International's headquarters in Plano, Texas, took charge of the negotiations with Occidental and worked a farm-in to the Berau Block aided by Thorkild Juul-Dam in Jakarta. Oxy had already spent $64 million on the Berau PSC and had an additional $8 million work obligation. Sinex was able to secure a 60 percent working interest for the