Swire Group to join Galoc oil search venture

UK-based Swire Group has signified keen interest in joining the oil exploration venture in Service Contract (SC) 14 in Galoc oil field in northwest Palawan.

The group is presently holding discussions with the SC 14 consortium members to provide the system that would put the Galoc field on early production.

The SC 14 consortium is composed of Philodrill Corp., Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp., Alcorn Phils. Alcorn Gold Resources Linapacan Oil, Gas & Power, Altisima Energy, Basic Petroleum and Minerals, Petroenergy Resources, Phoenix Energy, and Perth-based Nido Petroleum.

Earlier, Team Oil Ltd. of the UK and Cape Energy Pty. Ltd. of Austrlia signed a farm-in agreement in SC 14.

Netherlands-based Vitol Group, an international distributor of petroleum products, also pledged earlier to provide $31 million to develop the Galoc reserves.

Aside from the Galoc oilfield, SC 14 also covers Nido, Matinloc and West Linapacan.

The Galoc field has an estimated recoverable reserve of 35 million barrels of oil out of the total 115 million barrels of oil potential reserves.

Through its subsidiary Swire Production Solutions (SPS) Ltd., the Swire Group currently develops innovative concepts for early oil and gas early production solutions, advanced and extended well testing and marginal field production process systems.

The group has global operations in Asia, the Pacific Rim, Australia the US, and UK.

Founded in Liverpool, England in 1816, the group’s privately-owned parent company, John Swire & Sons Ltd. is headquartered in London. It owns the Cathay Pacific airline.

For the second quarter, the Nido and Matinloc fields yielded a total of 70,842 barrels. The consortium also completed six crude shipments to Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. during the period, involving a total combined volume of 85,002 barrels of Nido and Matinloc crude.

It was likewise learned that consortium members Alcorn Gold Resources and Basic Consolidated have proposed re-activating the West Linapacan field.