EDC inks $16.1-M drilling contract with Papua New Guinea firm

Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC) has signed a $16.11-million drilling contract with Lihir Gold Ltd. (LGL) of Papua New Guinea.

EDC president Paul Aquino said the one-year contract covers the drilling of seven geothermal wells, three dewatering wells and one work over well and includes the supply of third party drilling services such as mud engineering, well cementing and directional drilling.

At the contract signing held in Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea, LGL mine manager John Flynn expressed satisfaction at the drilling and safety performance of EDC on the last drilling campaign and said he is looking forward to exceeding that for the new campaign.

For his part, EDC drilling sector vice president Mario Taguines complimented LGL for the continued business and the trust and confidence accorded to EDC in accomplishing LGL’s drilling programs.

“We want to assure LGL that EDC will strive to meet or exceed the safety and performance targets it has set for all its contractors. We are also interested in providing LGL our drilling and other geothermal related services for its 40-MW expansion program,” Taguines said.

LGL, one of the leading gold producers in Asia Pacific, sources most of its power requirements for its gold mine and processing facility from geothermal energy.

It has announced that it is ramping-up its gold output to one million ounces per year and thus needs to expand its existing 56-MW geothermal power plant by an additional 40-MW to support its expansion program.

EDC’s contracts with LGL have been a major source of drilling revenues since 1999.

Last year, EDC’s income from international drilling contracts jumped to P624.8 million from the previous year’s P261.5 million.

EDC is currently upgrading its rigs and other drilling equipment to bag more drilling contracts overseas.