Gas find turns out to be water

The Department of Energy (DOE) said yesterday a consortium drilling a potential gas well, Victoria-3 in Tarlac decided to abandon the project after finding a water reservoir in the area instead of gas.

"The PNOC-EDC has plugged and abandoned the well. The operator is currently demobilizing the rig," the department said in a statement, referring to the state-owned firm which has an 85-percent stake in the project.

Last month, President Arroyo announced that the PNOC consortium stumbled on a potential gas field in Victoria, Tarlac after gas flowed in the Victoria-3 well.

Victoria-3 well was spudded last December and drilled to a depth of 9,000 feet but natural gas flowed and flared at a depth of between 5,175 and 5,505 feet.

A DOE official said yesterday authorities overestimated the potential of the Victoria-3 well.

"There is gas in the Victoria-3 well but it is so small that we could not even measure it. So far, we could not consider it as viable," the official, who asked not to be identified, told reporters.

Despite this setback, officials said the consortium would continue drilling more wells in the Victoria area.

"There are gas reserves in the area but we only have to find a much better flooring than the Victoria-3 well," Ismael Ocampo, head of the oil and gas division, of the energy department said.

Officials of PNOC-EDC said they would have to conduct more tests in the Victoria area before looking for new targets.

"We have to finish the evaluation of the Victoria-3 whether it is commercially viable or not. We know that there is gas in Central Luzon. We just have to determine the structure enough to hold on to the gas," Thelmo Cunanan, president of Philippine National Oil Co., the parent firm of PNOC-EDC, told a news conference.

Last October, the government inaugurated the largest natural gas field in the country, Malampaya, in offshore Palawan in southwestern Philippines.

Malampaya has an estimated 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and 85 million barrels of condensate – enough to provide 2,700 to 3,000 megawatts of power for more than 20 years. – Donnabelle Gatdula