Nido sets delivery of Tindalo oil next week

MANILA, Philippines - Australian oil exploration firm Nido Petroleum Ltd. said yesterday it is preparing the delivery of the first oil production at its Tindalo-1 next week.

“The offtake of the first cargo is currently scheduled for Sept. 16-18, subject to weather,” Nido deputy managing director Joanne Williams said in a statement.

Williams said some 196,000 barrels of oil are now in the storage tanks of the floating storage and offtake (FSO) vessel. Nido discovered the Tindalo oil field in October 2008.

Nido has a 42.4-percent stake in Service Contract 54 A, which covers the Tindalo field, with joint venture partners Kairiki Energy Ltd (30.1 percent), TG World Energy Corp. (12.5 percent) and Trafigura Ventures III B.V. (15.1 percent).

The partnership decided to proceed with the well development in December 2009.

Nido has identified over 20 prospects in shallow water in northwest Palawan with an estimated potential of over 200 million barrels of oil in place.

According to Williams, the Tindalo crude “should trade well against regional and Middle East crudes.”

Preliminary analysis on the quality being extracted from the Tindalo oil field showed that it is considered a medium-heavy grade crude.

Previous data showed that Tindalo’s full-field recoverable volumes to be in the range of 1.5 million to 9.1 million barrels with a mid-case of approximately 5.1 million barrels.

Williams said the Tindalo well was “giving an average daily net oil production since the last update of approximately 1,700 barrels of oil per day.”

Nido will conduct a workover of the Tindalo-1 well to increase oil production by decreasing or eliminating water from the well. Tindalo-1 was was producing at a rate of about 16,000 to 18,000 barrels per day with the use of electric submersible pump.

It would be noted that there was some difficulties in consistently producing oil at the Tindalo-1 well due to the presence of produced water.

“A workover program is planned to take place which is expected to increase the amount of oil produced and decrease or eliminate the watercut which is currently approximately 70 to 80 percent of total fluid production,” the company said.

According to tests, the Tindalo well’s “productivity exceeded expectations with high rate testing confirming well productivity in excess of 18,500 barrels per day.”