Petroenergy, partners allot $540 M for West African oil search venture

MANILA, Philippines - Petroenergy Resource Corp. (PERC), a publicly-listed energy company in the Philippines, and its foreign partners are set to invest $540 million to expand their oil drilling project in West Africa.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday, PERC said the Etame Marin consortium, where it holds a 2.525-percent participating interest, would increase its production capacity.

“After 10 years of continuous and sustained production with an average daily rate of roughly 22,000 barrels of oil per day, the Etame Marin concession in offshore Gabon, West Africa is going to be expanded,” PERC said.

“Thus, the construction of two platforms in the Etame and Southeast Etame oil fields is in progress,” the company said in its disclosure

In 2014, the consortium will also start drilling five to seven wells from these platforms, PERC also said.

“Simultaneously, the existing platforms in the Ebouri and Avouma oil fields are being upgraded to accommodate more production wells. Drilling in these fields will commence January 2013,” it added.

The consortium will also upgrade its floating production storage and offloading vessel to prepare for the increased field output.

Aside from PERC, the other members of the Etame Marin consortium are Vaalco Energy Inc. as the operator, PanAfrican Energy Gabon Corp., Sasol Petroleum West Africa Ltd., Sojitz Etame Ltd. and Energy Africa Gabon.

PERC is an upstream oil exploration and development company founded in 1994. Its two biggest shareholders are the Yuchengo Group of Companies and Philex Petroleum Corp.

Revenue is derived largely from PERC’s share of producing offshore oil fields in West Africa.