Oil exploration firm plans to list shares at PSE

Local oil exploration firm NorAsian Energy Ltd. is planning to list its shares by way of introduction on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

The company is jointly owned by Australia’s Ottoman Energy Ltd. and AustralAsian Energy Ltd. Ottoman is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

NorAsian chief executive officer Ken Fellowes said listing on the stock exchange is an option being studied by the company.

Listing by way of introduction refers to the listing of shares of a company without undertaking an initial public offering (IPO).

NorAsian is building a multipurpose semi-submersible rig with a production capacity of 45,000 barrels a day. The rig, now being built in China, is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2007.

Fellowes said the company will start drilling soon after the delivery of the rig but no specific target date has yet been set.

He said the rig is primarily intended for NorAsian drilling plans, but may eventually be used by other oil companies in the Philippines.

Oil rig availability has been a problem for companies prospecting for oil and gas in the Philippines, which have yet to yield any large oil discovery in the past few years. The largest was the Malampaya natural gas field with 2.7 trillion cubic feet, discovered in the early 1990s.

NorAsian chairman Rufino Bomasang said the company hopes to produce as much as 25,000 barrels of oil a day from three horizontal wells to be drilled in Calauit, which is estimated to contain recoverable oil reserves of up to 12.6-million barrels.

Calauit, an offshore field that sits below 1,000 feet of water, produced 830,000 barrels of Indonesia Tapis-type crude oil in 1997. But since the oil is trapped in a fractured limestone formation, it is prone to water intrusion that makes production expensive.

Aside from Calauit, NorAsian is also planning to drill the Argao and Cabilao prospects, a few kilometers off the central island of Cebu, and the Marantao prospects beneath 6,000 feet of water in offshore Palawan.

Bomasang said the company is confident of finding oil and natural gas in Marantao, a prospect in the South China Sea that is close to Malampaya and "giant" and "super giant" discoveries in Malaysia. Drilling on Marantao is scheduled until 2008.

"Marantao may well be the Philippines’ next Malampaya," Bomasang said.