Forum Exploration starts drilling activities for ’03

Forum Exploration, Inc. (Forum) has commenced the drilling in three exploratory wells over its Service Contract No. 40 covering North Cebu to kick off the first drilling activity in the country this year, Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said.

He said the drilling activity is in line with the energy department’s thrust to reorganize its petroleum exploration development program to attract investors in oil and gas exploration activities.

Perez said Forum Exploration will test the Maya Prospect which is a small anticlinal structure with the Maingit sandstone as the main reservoir target.

The wells, Perez said, are programmed to be drilled to a depth of 1,000 feet.

The Maya prospect was first discovered in 1961 by Mobil and American Asiatic Oil Co. when it flowed around 540 barrels of oil in eight days during the well testing. The new drilling activities will confirm if the petroleum reserves are of commercial quantity.

Perez said Forum Exploration is also re-assessing the Libertad gas prospect in Libertad, Bogo, Cebu for possible commercial development.

In 1994-95, the firm drilled five exploratory wells in Libertad for gas exploration. At that time one of the wells flowed about eight to nine million cubic feet of natural gas per day during the well testing operations.

The Energy Department recently released the results of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) study on the country’s petroleum resources or the Philippine Petroleum Resource Assessment Project (PhilPRA).

The PhilPRA shows that the Philippines is richly endowed with 16 petroleum basins covering an area of more than 700,000 square kilometers (sq. kms.), making the country a promising site for renewed petroleum exploration in the Asian region.

The 16 identified petroleum basins are: Northwest Palawan; Southwest Palawan; Central Luzon; Visayas; Mindoro-Cuyo; Cagayan; East Palawan; Southeast Luzon; Reed Bank; Cotabato; Agusan-Davao; Sulu Sea; West Luzon; Ilocos; Bicol Shelf; and Iloilo-West Masbate.

Qualitative and quantitative assessment also show that the country’s total petroleum resources – oil, natural gas and condensate – amount to about 8.895 billion barrels of oil equivalent.