Oriental Petroleum incurs Q1 loss

MANILA, Philippines - Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp.incurred a net loss in the first quarter due to the shutdown of the Galoc oil field in Palawan.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the oil firm said it recorded a net loss of $689,925 in the first three months, reversing the $859,780 net income a year ago.

“The company posted petroleum revenues of $440,000, which represents the company’s share from Nido/Matinloc operations,” Oriental Petroleum said.

The amount is lower by $3.27 million compared with last year’s $3.71 million mainly because no revenues were recorded from Galoc operations, it added.

In November, Galoc Production Co. (GPC) temporarily stopped operations at the oil field due to upgrades.

“Recommencement of production is expected in the second half of the year,” Oriental Petroleum said.

GPC, which holds 58.29 percent of Service Contract (SC) 14C, is jointly-owned by the Vitol Group and Otto Energy Ltd. Other stakeholders in SC 14C are Oriental Petroleum and its unit Linapacan Oil Gas & Power Corp. with 7.57 percent; Philodrill Corp. with 7.03 percent; Forum Energy Corp. with 2.27 percent; Alcorn Gold, 1.53 percent and PetroEnergy, 1.03 percent.

Lower expenses were not able to offset the decline in revenues.

“Petroleum production costs as of March 31 amounted to $1.32 million, 29.53 percent lower than same period last year,” Oriental Petroleum said.

Other subsidiaries of Oriental Petroleum are dormant firms Oriental Mahogany Woodworks Inc. and Oriental Land Corp.