DOE lines up 7 oil, gas exploration projects this year

The Department of Energy (DOE) has lined up at least seven oil and gas drilling projects as one of two wells producing oil in Northwest Palawan is expected to dry up this year, an official of the DOE said yesterday.

The DOE official, who requested anonymity, said the well that is about to dry up is the Matinloc well, located in offshore Northwest, Palawan. According to the DOE official, Matinloc has remaining reserves of only about 240,000 barrels of oil.

"The well is expected to produce that this year. So we can expect that the well will be depleted this year," the official said, adding that as of end-2000, the Matinloc had produced some 12.3 million barrels of oil.

But, the official said the operators of the Matinloc can choose not to extract all the 240,000 barrels of oil. "It depends if they want to produce the entire oil reserves. They may defer the production depending on the price of oil," he said.

The operators of Matinloc and their corresponding interests in the well are: Alcorn Gold Resources Corp. (32.932 percent); Alcorn (Production) Philippines Inc. (25.724 percent); Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp. (16.851 percent); Philodrill Corp. (12.683 percent); and Basic Consolidated Inc. (11.81 percent).

Matinloc produces the more expensive type of oil or the so-called light oil (light sweet crude) which has low sulfur content. The other types of oil are: Dubai crude and Northsea Brent.

The depletion of the Matinloc well will leave the Philippines with only one oil producing well – the Nido well which is also located on offshore Palawan.

To prevent a supply imbalance, the DOE has lined up at least seven oil and gas drilling projects this year. This include three service contracts and four geophysical survey and exploration contracts (GSECs).

One service contract, expected to push through within the first quarter, is onshore exploration of Forum Exploration Corp. in North Cebu. The other two wells under service contracts are Unocal Sulu Ltd. and Shell Philippines Exploration Inc. (SPEX).

Unocal’s exploration area is located in the Sulu Sea and is expected to commence in the second quarter of the year.

SPEX is expected to continue its Malampaya 10 well drilling in Northwest Palawan in the third quarter.

Four GSEC projects scheduled this year are: Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) in the Cotabato Basin, Vulcan Industrial Mining Corp. in Central Luzon, Philodrill Corp. in offshore Mindoro, and Alcorn Petroleum Corp. in Northern Leyte.

PNOC-EC, a subsidiary of PNOC, will start its Mindanao-based project in the last quarter of this year subject to better peace and order situation in the region.

Vulcan is expected to commence drilling of a so-called commitment well in the second quarter of this year.

Philodrill is expected to dig a so-called option well in the second quarter of 2000 while Alcorn will continue its San Isidro-SX1 well drilling in Northern Leyte within the first three months of the year.