TA Oil to intensity oil search in Central VisayasTrans-Asia Oil...

TA Oil to intensity oil search in Central Visayas

Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. (TA Oil) said Tuesday it would intensify drilling and oil exploration activities worth $11.2 million in its offshore stake in Central Visayas. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, TA Oil and its partner NorAsian Energy Ltd. (NorAsian) said plans are afoot to undertake a number of new seismic data gathering and geological studies offshore, as part of the exploration work under Service Contract (SC) 69. TA Oil said it is undertaking the intensive studies to identify additional drillable prospects in its SC area. The oil and power development arm of investment holding company Phinma Group won in May 2008 the seven-year stake over 7,040 square kilometers of offshore prospects found in the Visayan basin bounded by the islands of Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte. The company is primarily involved in petroleum exploration and production, mining, conventional fuel-based power generation and retail electricity trading. SC 69 lies between the two sub-blocks of SC51 where NorAsian already has an 80 percent working interest. At present, TA Oil controls a 30 percent participating interest in SC 69 while NorAsian, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian firm Otto Energy Ltd., controls the remaining 70 percent stake. The new exploration activities in SC 69 will form part of the third sub-phase of work on the block, which will be carried out from February 2011 to August 2012. In mid-2010, the consortium tapped the seismic vessel m/v Discoverer 2, operated by BGP GeoExplorer Pte. Ltd., to gather two-dimensional seismic data in the area under SC 69. After the intensive data gathering, TA Oil said it expects to drill a well soon. Last June, TA Oil entered into an agreement with Australia?s Frontier Gasfields Pty. Ltd., granting the latter as much as 15 percent participating equity in the SC 69. ? DM/VS, GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/208318/ta-oil-to-intensity-oil-search-in-central-visayas