PNOC-EDC to ink drilling contract with Aussie firm

PNOC-Energy Development Corp., a geothermal unit of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), expects to seal a drilling contract with an Australian exploration firm.

PNOC-EDC chairman and president Sergio Apostol said, they are holding talks with Santa Fe Co. for a geothermal drilling prospects in Brisbane, Australia.

Apostol said the contract will involve at least two deep wells. "The amount of the contract might range from $4 million to $6 million each or a total contract price of P610 million," he said.

The PNOC-EDC official said they are also talking with an Iran-based petroleum company for an exchange of manpower expertise in natural gas and geothermal development.

"We have ongoing negotiations with an Iranian firm. We expect to firm up the deal soon," he said.

Recently, it bagged a $4.2-million (P200- million) contract with Papua New Guinea’s Lihir Management Co. to drill at least 16 wells.

PNOC-EDC owns and operates eight on-shore drilling rigs that can undertake even the most aggressive exploration and development program in the region. Since 1999, Apostol said they have been exporting the company’s drilling expertise to various countries in the world.

For the past years, the company has been intensifying its operations here and abroad. In fact, it will be increasing by more than 100 percent the budget for its program in 2002.

Apostol said they would be setting aside some P1.68 billion for PNOC-EDC’s drilling program this year, some 150-percent higher than last year’s total drilling expenditures of P675 million.

PNOC-EDC, one of the most aggressive income-earners of PNOC, is programmed to drill at least 15 new wells in different parts of the country.

He said part of the budget would also finance a number of maintenance works for 32 existing wells within this year. – Donnabelle Gatdula