DOE gives Nido green light on Gindara project

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) has given Nido Petroleum Ltd. a go signal to proceed with the drilling of its Gindara 1 project in Northwest Palawan in May this year.

Nido exploration head Jon Pattillo said the approval of the drilling program “marks another important milestone in the lead up to the drilling of the Gindara-1 prospect.”

The Gindara prospect is covered under service contract 54B whose consortium members are Nido, 33 percent (operator); Kairiki Energy Ltd. (formerly Yilgarn Petroleum), 22 percent; and Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (Spex), 45 percent.

The Gindara prospect lies approximately 50 kilometers immediately south of the Spex-operated Malampaya gas field in SC 38, the largest discovery made in the Philippines to date and currently on production.

Pattillo said they would proceed with the finalization of its remaining third party contracts.

He said they would also start planning for the logistics of the first well drilling program.

“This will ensure we’re confidently prepared ahead of mobilization of the rig to the Philippines,” he said.

According to Pattillo, “through our partnership with Spex, Nido has successfully enhanced our Manila-based drilling team with a Shell drilling engineer who is highly familiar with the Atwood Falcon rig through his involvement in Spex’s 2010 Philippine drilling campaign.”

The Nido official said the company’s operations team will continue to work closely with Spex to ensure efficient aviation and logistics support to the Gindara-1 drilling operation.