Monday, October 13, 2008 CMOL exploration to push through
BURGUNDY Global Exploration Corp. (BGEC), the partner tapped by the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) for the exploration of the Camago-Malampaya Oil Leg (CMOL), is eager to push ahead with the project.
Michael Louise H. Sia, BGEC vice-president, said they are willing to increase their investment in the CMOL exploration partnership depending on the results of the initial phase and development of the drilling activities.
Initially, he said they are allocating US$700 million but as they go on they will infuse more capital since they expect the acquisition of the equipment to be one of their major expenses.
"We have initiated the survey but we expect the drilling operations in the second quarter of 2009," Sia said.
Based on government's computation, the development of the oil rim could entail a capital expenditure of about US$400 to US$500 million, and another US$300 to US$400 million operational expenses or a total estimated amount of US$1 billion.
Earlier, PNOC-EC director Eduaro Hernandez said they are looking at less than two years for the CMOL first oil production.
"This is a highly technical operations but we will succeed because oil is there...and we will start production in less than two years," added Hernandez.
While noting that the CMOL project is a "very delicate operations" because of the existing gas exploration activities being conducted by their other partners namely Shell and Chevron, Hernandez stressed that this will not be a cause for them not to pursue the drilling and exploration activities with BGEC.
Hernandez said the CMOL oil rim contains an estimated 20 to 40 million barrels of oil and can produce about 40,000 barrels per day.
Prior to the awarding of the CMOL partnership contract last month, BGEC was granted two service contracts under the Philippine Energy Contract Rounds 2005 (PECR) by the Department of Energy (DOE),
These are Service Contracts 61 (SC-61) and 62 (SC-62). SC-61 covers PECR 2005 SC-61 located in Offshore East Palawan in northern Sulu Sea.
To recall, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes reported that the first oil production from Galoc oilfields has been finally extracted.
Reyes said they are expecting to get 20,000 barrels a day of oil in the first 90 days of commercial production of the Galoc oilfield, which is located in the Northwest of Palawan.
"Opening the country for more investment opportunities such as this one will eventually benefit everyone. In a time of uncertainties in oil prices, this will benefit the country and make us less reliant on imported crude oil and save millions of dollars in importation cost," the energy chief further said. (MSN/Sunnex)
