Dutch firm lends $31M for Galoc oil search project

Vitol Group, a Netherlands-based petroleum products marketer, will underwrite a $31-million worth of loan to further develop service contract (SC) 14 in the Galoc oil reserves located northwest of Palawan.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Philodrill Corp., one of the consortium members which holds equity in SC 14, said the loan will come on top of the $9-million that Vitol earlier committed to infuse to Galoc Production Co. (GPC).

GPC is a joint venture company formed by British firm Team Oil Ltd. and Cape Energy Pty. Ltd. of Australia to undertake the Galoc development.The Galoc field is estimated to hold about 30 to 50 million barrels of oil reserves.

The Vitol group has interests and activities in the African oil industry. It is one of the world’s foremost oil trading companies with a wide range of activities encompassing exploration, refining and shipping.

Its product portfolio includes a range of fuels, chemicals and liquefied petroleum gas. Vitol Beheer BV, based in the Netherlands, is the holding company for the Vitol group.

Earlier, Team Oil and Cape Energy signed a "farm-in agreement" with the SC 14 consortium that holds the rights to explore the oil reserves in the Galoc field.

Aside from Philodrill, the other members of SC 14 are Oriental Petroleum and Mineral Corp., Alcorn Phils., Alcorn Gold Resources, Linapacan Oil Gas & Power, Altisima Energy, Basic Petroleum and Minerals, Petroenergy Resources, Phoenix Energy, and Perth-based Nido Petroleum.

The agreement covers the Galoc area, which will be developed by Team Oil and Cape Energy at their own cost in exchange for 80 percent equity.

As of the first quarter this year, the consortium completed three crude shipments to Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. of 38,385 barrels of crude from SC 14, particularly from the Nido and Matinloc areas.

The consortium is presently undertaking measures to increase production from the field such as leak repairs and fire deluge systems.