Spex to drill Iloc-1 well next year

Shell Phils. Exploration BV (Spex), the main operator of the $45-billion Malampaya natural gas power project in Northern Palawan, will explore early next year the nearby Iloc-1 well, Spex president and managing director David Greer said yesterday.

Both Malampaya and Iloc-1 are covered by Service Contract 38 that Spex entered into with the National Government in the early 1990s.

The drilling of Iloc-1, which was originally set for last August, will start after Spex completes the exploration of another new well, Malampaya 10, and completes its extended well test.

The extended well test, which normally takes three months, is expected to yield recoverable reserves of between 35 million and 50 million barrels of oil. Project investment is estimated at P700 million.

So far, Spex has drilled nine wells near Malampaya.

Greer expects to flow the first natural gas from its Malampaya platform this June. By October, Spex will start distributing the natural gas to the Lopez-owned Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo power plants and Korean Electric Power’s Ilijan power plant.

Spex has a 45-percent stake in the Malampaya project while US-based Texaco owns another 45 percent. The balance 10 percent is owned by PNOC exploration Corp., the exploration arm of the state-run Philippine National Oil Co.