Galoc to start paying Philippines government Thursday, 3...

Galoc to start paying Philippines government


Thursday, 3 September 2009

THE Galoc joint venture is poised to make its first payment to the Philippines government since the JV started production last October.



The floating production, storage and offtake vessel Rubicon Intrepid at the Galoc oil field

The Business World Online quoted the Philippines Department of Energy as saying the JV had committed to pay the government $171,226.04.

Energy secretary Angelo Reyes said this proved the Philippines oil and gas industry was a burgeoning enterprise.

“We intend to boost efforts in the upstream industry to reflect the need to utilise indigenous resources and to reduce reliance on imported petroleum.”

Operator Galoc Production Company had repaid all of its debt for the project in June this year, clearing the way for the company to pay out cash dividend payments from oil sales to its owners, which include Otto Energy.

Production from the field was originally due to start in June 2008 but was delayed due to damage to the retrieval line that is connected to the top of the riser.

Since then, production has been interrupted several times by poor weather with the most recent interruption lasting two months after the riser system was damaged.

Galoc has estimated reserves of about 10 million barrels of oil and was producing about 11,000 barrels of oil per day prior to the last shutdown.

GPC holds a 59.84% stake in the field. Otto Energy, which owns 31.38% of GPC, holds an 18.77% interest in the field.

Other partners include Nido Petroleum (22.87%), Oriental Petroleum (7.78505%), Philodrill Corporation (7.21495%) and Forum Energy Philippines (2.27575%).

Meanwhile, BHP Billiton Petroleum has reportedly exercised its option to participate in the ExxonMobil-operated service contract 56 in the Sulu Sea.

The DOE said it had approved BHP’s option to take up a 25% stake in SC56 from Mitra Energy.

Drilling of the first commitment well in the 8500-hectare permit is expected to start this month.

Partners in SC56 will be ExxonMobil (50%), Mitra (25%) and BHP Billiton (25%).