PNOC, Nido Petroleum tie up for Palawan projects

Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is set to enter into an agreement with Australia-based Nido Petroleum Ltd. to facilitate oil drilling operations in northwest Palawan next month.

The "cooperative agreement" would allow PNOC to help Nido in sourcing out an oil rig to be used in its drilling.

Last month, Nido announced that it intends to continue the second stage of its drilling program for its Service Contract (SC) 54 in the Nido field in offshore Palawan.

Energy Undersecretary Guillermo Balce admitted that there have been a number of oil exploration firms interested in undertaking oil drilling this year but are faced with an oil rig supply problem.

Nido, however, said it recognizes that the availability of drilling rigs is a problem facing the industry worldwide.

"To address this, Nido has two initiatives underway. First, we are working with a world-class company, the Peak Group, which has significant expertise in the planning, drilling and management of both single and multi- well projects worldwide. The second initiative, coordinated by the head of the PNOC, is a cooperative strategy between the operators in the Philippines to source rigs to drill their individual wells," Nido managing director David Whitby said.

Nido expects to spend a minimum of $6 million per well for the second sub-phase drilling in its service area.

The Australian oil exploration firm owns majority of SC 54, which covers approximately 500,000 hectares. SC 54 is close to other service areas that the company has been exploring – SC 14 and SC6-B.

Nido officials said their primary drilling target in the area is the Coron North structure.

"The Coron North prospect is an excellent drilling target. It is rare that such a large structure with a proven play type, on trend with a large gas field and oil leg (Malampaya) and adjacent to an oil column (Coron 1) has remained undrilled, " Nido head of exploration Paul Quaife said.

For the past couple of months, Nido has been actively looking for a partner in the drilling of a well on Coron North and said results have been "encouraging".

Nido operates the Nido and Matinloc fields, both offshore oilfields in northwest Palawan, that contribute about 5,000 barrels of oil per day to the country energy mix.

Nido Petroleum Ltd. is an oil and gas explorer and producer with production and development assets in the Philippines and exploration acreage in the southern gas basin of the North Sea.

The company was formed in July 1999 when the Sydney Oil Co. Drilling Trust (SOCDET) incorporated and changed its corporate name to Nido Petroleum Ltd.

Since then, Nido inherited SOCDET’s interests in SC14 in the northwest Palawan Basin, including the Nido and Matinloc oil production assets and the Galoc oil field.