more production, page-3

can anyone please let me know if this articles is true. http://mb.com.ph/articles/201374/us-firm-explore-mindoro-oilgas

US firm to explore for Mindoro oil/gas
April 4, 2009, 2:45pm

The Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded a service contract to Pitkin Petroleum Ltd. of the US for the exploration of the Mindoro-Cuyo basin for oil and gas.

Energy Undersecretary Ramon Oca said the approval will allow Pitkin Petroleum to explore in Block 2 of area 4 in the Mindoro-Cuyo basin which covers 1.16 million hectares.

“The signing of the Pitkin service contract is expected to give another boost to the country's oil exploration efforts. Because Pitkin is a foreign company, its application was thoroughly studied and reviewed,” Oca said.

Pitkin Petroleum and its minority partner South China Resources Inc., a publicly-listed local exploration firm, will spend an initial $7 million for the development of the Mindoro-Cuyo basin.

The basin, located at 200 to 1,000 meters offshore, is estimated to contain 832 million barrels including a discovered resource of 25 million barrels of oil. Pitkin Petroleum recently took a 58.3 percent stake in the service contract (SC 14) covering West Linapacan in offshore Palawan.

West Linapacan A was discovered in the early 1990s, and following the drilling and completion of three vertical subsea wells, a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading-style development was employed to produce the field from 1992 through to early 1996.

The West Linapacan A field has been shut in for over 12 years and will most likely have returned to near its pre-production state.

The other joint venture members of SC 14 are Nido Petroleum, Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp., Philodrill Corp., Forum Energy PLC, Alcorn Petroleum and Minerals Corp. and Petro Energy Resources Corp.

“We welcome Pitkin to the joint venture and we are particularly thrilled to see that they share Nido’s long-held optimistic views on the West Linapacan area,” Nido Petroleum deputy managing director Joanne Williams said earlier.

Pitkin is partly owned by Philex Mining Corporation which has been increasing its stake to a substantial minority in the company.