The Galoc oil field expansion project in northwest Palawan...

The Galoc oil field expansion project in northwest Palawan started commercial oil production Tuesday, boosting the country’s energy security efforts, a government official said.

“First oil, barring any hitches, should be today. If there are no more technical hitches... They have done the testing already. It’s supposed to be today [Tuesday],” Ramon Oca, Energy Undersecretary told reporters.

The consortium members of the Galoc oil field under service contact 14 C plan to double the oil flow from the Galoc field to 12,000 barrels once commercial production starts from about 5,000 to 6,000 barrels.

Oca said he had no figures on the level of commercial production as of press time.

Otto Energy Ltd., operator of the oil producing Galoc field, disclosed to the Australian Stock Exchange in October that the previously drilled Galoc-6H well flowed oil at a stable rate of 3,800 barrels per day.

The additional drilling is part of the Galoc phase two development to draw more oil from the reservoir.

“The initial oil deliverability potential from Galoc-6H under normal field operating conditions is expected to be between 4,000 and 6,000 bopd with final operating rates to be set according to optimum facility and reservoir management constraints,” Otto Energy said.

The company said the results from the flow test were in line with the forecast overall field production rate of 12,000 barrels a day.

Otto Energy holds a 33 percent working interest and remains operator of the Galoc project, while Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. has taken a 26.84473 percent working interest.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/12/04/new-galoc-well-raises-production-of-oil-field/