Ayala unit exits SC 6 consortium

MANILA, Philippines — ACE Enexor Inc., the listed oil and gas exploration and production unit of the Ayala Group, has decided to exit the consortium operating Service Contract (SC) No. 6 in northwest Palawan.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, ACE Enexor said its executive committee approved the withdrawal from SC 6 consortium.

According to the company, SC 6 does not have any commercial operations. It is divided into two blocks where ACE Enexor owns 7.78 percent interest in Block A and 2.475 percent carried interest in Block B.

This latest move will allow the company to concentrate resources on SC 55 offshore west Palawan, ACE Enexor chairman Eric Francia said.

“We would like to focus on SC 55. We are currently preparing a drilling plan and potential partnerships,” he said in a text message.

Last year, ACE Enexor announced the plan of the SC 55 consortium to drill an exploratory well in 2022.

Its subsidiary Palawan55 Exploration & Production Corp. the operator of SC 55 made the commitment to drill one exploratory well within the first two years after the Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed SC 55’s entry into the appraisal period.

In April last year, the DOE confirmed that the “Hawkeye-1 well encountered a significant volume of movable natural gas, deemed to be a non-associated gas discovery under Section 13.02 of SC 55.

Non-associated gas discovery means the reservoir contains only natural gas and no oil.

For this year, Palawan55 will focus on the execution of the drilling program such as permitting, procurement of drilling rig, equipment, materials and supplies, and services, and deployment of drilling team.

SC 55 is estimated to have some 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the DOE.

In particular, the Hawkeye well was believed to have an estimated 480 million barrels of oil identified on 2D seismic originally acquired by Otto in 2007 and further defined with the 600-km 3D seismic acquisition in late 2009.

SC 55 is a deep-water block located in the southwest Palawan Basin, covering an area of 9,880 sq. km. It is in the middle of a proven regional oil and gas fairway that extends from the productive Borneo offshore region in the southwest, to the offshore Philippine production assets northwest of Palawan.

Palawan55 holds a 75 percent interest in the gas prospect while the remaining 25 percent is under Pryce Gases Inc.

Palawan55 is 75 percent owned by ACE Enexor and 25 percent owned by AC Energy Philippines Inc.