Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Oil, gas unearthed in Palawan
THE consortium headed by the Australian-based Nido Petroleum Philippines Ltd. has discovered oil in the Yakal-1 Well in the Northwest Palawan basin.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes made the announcement, but stressed that there are no other details yet since Nido Petroleum Philippines and its partner Yilgarn Petroleum Philippines Ltd. are still completing its drilling operations.
"Initial findings showed the presence of gas (methane to pentane) and oil in the drill cuttings recovered to the surface," Reyes said.
He said the drilling started last September 8 and after reaching the well's depth of 1,969.5 meters last September 20, oil was discovered.
Moreover, Reyes said geological data gathered from the underlying limestone reservoir also confirmed the presence of an oil column of about 66 meters in the Nido reservoir from the depths of 1,733 to 1,839 meters.
"The consortium is still evaluating the oil bearing section to determine the extent of the oil column below 1,839 meters," he added.
However, the energy chief said after the evaluation expected to be completed this week, Nido and Yilgarn will stop its operations in the Yakal-1 Well and move the rig to anew drilling site-to be called the Tindalo-1, located about five kilometers northwest of Yakal-1.
In August 2005, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded to Nido Petroleum service contract 54 (SC54) to explore the Palawan basin.
SC54 is located adjacent to the southern end of Nido's existing SC14 and SC6B licenses. It is on trend with Shell's 600 million BOE Malampaya producing gas field.
It covers 537,616 hectares in this proven hydrocarbon basin.
Two years ago, Nido accepted a farm-in offer from Perth-based Yilgarn Gold Limited (Yilgarn) to farm-in to the SC54 acreage.
Under the farm-in terms, Yilgarn will earn a total 40 percent working interest in the SC54 contract area upon the completion of two stages.
In the first stage, Yilgarn will fund the acquisition and processing of seismic data on a 4:3 promote basis. This is based on estimated costs of US$6 million for the seismic programme.
Following the technical evaluation of the seismic data, Yilgarn is required to fund the drilling of a well on a 2:1 promote basis as the second stage to earn its 40 percent working interest. This is based on estimated costs of US$15 million for the well. (MSN/Sunnex)
