general news article from manila re galoc

Have fun:

Australian firm to drill in Palawan


By MYRNA M. VELASCO


Perth-based Nido Petroleum Philippines Pty Ltd. will be pouring in fresh investment of US$24.4 million (roughly P1.342 billion at prevailing peso-dollar exchange rate) for exploration and drilling of four wells on offshore Northwest Palawan.


This, as the Australian firm has just concluded and signed Service Contract 54 (SC 54) with the Philippine government, through the Department of Energy, that provided it a license to explore oil and gas for a period of 7 years within the prescribed coverage area of 537,616 hectares.

The work program consists of seven sub-phases extendible for another 3 years with a final extension of one year to determine the commercial viability of an oil discovery.

The development or production period will be over 25 years, renewable for a series of 5-year periods but shall in no case exceed a total of 15 years.

The proposed investment is still exclusive of development costs which could run to billions of pesos in the event of oil and gas discovery that is viable for commercial development.

The service contract was signed by Leonardo M. Ote, Vice President of Nido Petroleum Philippines and Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla, on behalf of the DoE.

Nido Petroleum Philippines president Bryce C. Martin noted that they find Northwest Palawan, to possess very prospective sedimentary basin "considering its past production history and present exploitation records," noting that despite this, the area is still considered largely underexplored.

"We strongly believed there are more undiscovered oil deposits lying untapped in the oil bearing rock formations beneath the surface of the seabed," he stressed.

The company will employ the latest 3D seismic survey and the results will be integrated into the existing geological and geophysical information to update the regional geological play concepts which should result in very mature drillable structures.

It is scheduling to start drilling operations for the first exploration well within the next 6-18 months.

Currently, Nido Petroleum Philippines together with other Filipino oil companies as a consortium presently operates the Nido and Matinloc Fields, offshore oilfields located at Northwest Palawan that contributes about 5,000 barrels of oil per day to the country’s energy mix.

Furthermore, the company and its other foreign and local partners have also concluded a farm-in agreement wherein they will redevelop and reactivate oil production at the Galoc Field, also in northwest Palawan basin.

Nido Petroleum Ltd is an oil and gas explorer and producer with production and development assets in the Philippines and exploration acreage in the Southern Gas Basin of the North Sea.

The company was formed in July 1999 when the Sydney Oil Company Drilling Trust (SOCDET) incorporated and changed its name to Nido Petroleum Ltd.

As part of this change Nido ‘inherited’ SOCDET’s interests in Service Contract 14 (SC14) in the north-west Palawan including the Nido and Matinloc oil production assets and the Galoc oil field.


http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2005/08/06/BSNS2005080641171.html