Lundin Petroleum, a Swedish-based independent oil and gas explorer, said Tuesday it found more oil trapped in sand offshore Pahang, Malaysia after drilling in Block PM308A, as an extension to its discovery of oil sands in the same area in 2011.

The company said in a statement that oil was discovered when drilling a well (Ara-1) in 75 metres water depth to a total depth of 4,030 metres using the jackup rig named ‘West Courageous.’

“The well confirmed the extension of the new intra-rift oil play across a very large structural complex,” the company said in a press release. “Work has commenced to estimate the range of resources discovered.”

For now, the Ara-1 well has been plugged and abandoned until further evaluation. This is the final well of Lundin’s 2012 drilling campaign in the region and the West Courageous jack rig has been demobilized.

Lundin Oil had previously found oil reserves at Block PM307 at the Bertam oilfield,  about 160 km offshore Pahang last year. This is north of PM308A. Announcing the discovery in October last year, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said that output was expected to reach 17,500 to 20,000 barrels a day in 2014.

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