Spex pushes back drilling program in Northwest Palawan

MANILA, Philippines - Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. has pushed back its drilling  program for Silangan - 1 well in its Service Contract 60 in Northwest Palawan.

South China Resources Inc., a member of the SPEX-led consortium, said the drilling will start in the second quarter instead of this quarter as earlier programmed.

South China, which holds a 15 percent stake in SC 60, said there has been a delay in the  arrival of the drillship Frontier Phoenix.

“South China understands the operator wishes to ascertain dependability of the drillship  to ensure its proper operation and safety of the ship and personnel,” the company said. Frontier Phoenix is owned by Frontier Drilling, headquartered in Norway. The company is an independent supplier of drilling and production services for the oil industry such as conventional drillships, semi-submersibles and floating production, storage, offloading  vessels.

Spex is the lead operator of SC 60 with a 55 percent stake in the project. Other members  of the consortium are South China and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Co. with a 30 percent stake.

Spex is also the operator of the Malampaya gas-to-power project while Kuwait Petroleum  is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

South China earlier said SC 60 is one of the country’s most promising areas in terms of  potential for large accumulations for petroleum.

“A rigorous study of the 3D seismic data was conducted and highlighted a number of  leads, several of which have been elevated to prospect status,” South China said.

In July 2008, the consortium entered the second sub-phase of SC 60.