Trans-Asia eyes stakes in oil drillings overseas

MANILA, Philippines - Trans-Asia Oil and Development Corp. (to be renamed Phinma Energy Corp.), is looking to invest in at least three overseas petroleum exploration either in production or nearing production stages.

During the company’s stockholders’ meeting Tuesday Trans-Asia president and CEO Francisco Viray said the oil and gas exploration business, which is under subsidiary Trans-Asia Petroleum Corp., is a valuable component of the group.

“We are looking at prospects overseas to farm-in to supplement our domestic service contracts. We will pursue opportunities offered by developments in the regulatory environment,” he said.

Elaborating further on overseas investment opportunities, Trans-Asia Petroleum executive vice president Raymundo Reyes said the group is looking at two prospects in West Australia and one in Sumatra, Indonesia, following the engagement of an Australian consultant.

“A number of criteria have been factored in. What we’re looking for are either producing or near production phase because we want to have recurring income, including country risk, fiscal regime, and all economics,” he said.

Reyes said the group is currently evaluating farm-in agreements with each private firm operating the projects.

“[Maybe we can close agreements] within the year since it usually takes two to three months to evaluate,” Reyes said.

Currently, Trans-Asia Petroleum holds interests in several service contracts locally.

These include a 7.78 percent interest in SC 6 Block A (offshore Northwest Palawan), 14.06 percent in SC 6 Block B (offshore Northwest Palawan), 33.34 percent in SC 51 (East Visayas), 6.82 percent in SC 55 (ultra deepwater-West Palawan), 50 percent in SC 69 (Central Visayas) and 10 percent in SC 50 (North Palawan).

SC 6 Block A and Block B are moving forward with specialized geophysical studies and seismic reprocessing work, respectively.

Meanwhile, Trans-Asia Petroleum assumed operatorship in the project and the consortium is now in the phase where it committed to undertake a 3D seismic program or drill an exploratory well.

For the other projects, SC 51 is currently stalled until the Duhat-2 well issue is resolved, a two-year moratorium was sought for SC 55, and the contract for SC 50 was rendered expired after the rig contractor cancelled its contract.