Weather forces Galoc group to halt drilling

Due to weather problems, the Galoc consortium has decided to temporarily halt drilling at its oilfield in offshore Northwest Palawan.

In an advisory, Galoc Production Co, WLL (GPC) told the consortium members that it had suspended drilling operations.

The Galoc field is covered by Service Contract 14-C in 290m of water approximately 65 kilometers north west of Palawan. GPC initially estimated the field to hold approximately 10 million barrels of crude reserves.

In October, the Galoc field had started producing about 770,000 barrels of crude at a rate of 13,000 to 14,000 barrels per day.

The consortium of Galoc is composed of Nido Petroleum Philippines Pty Ltd., The Philodrill Corp., Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp./Linapacan Oil Gas & Power Corp., Forum Energy Philippines Corp., Alcorn Gold Resources Corp. and PetroEnergy Resources Corp.

The company said it also disconnected the floating production, storage and offloading system (FPSO) vessel moored to the site. The FPSO acts as an oil platform to the Galoc field’s two production wells.

“For operational reasons the production at the Galoc field has been suspended to allow the FPSO Rubicon Intrepid to disconnect from the mooring and riser system,” GPC said.

The oil exploration firm said this is part of the precautionary measures that it had to undertake to avoid possible damage to the facilities due to the weather disturbance. 

“The findings of the inspection will enable the need for any remedial action to be established,” it said.

It was not clear if the next shipments of oil from the field will be delayed. The Galoc group expects a second cargo of 306,010 barrels (68,176 barrels net to Nido) that was lifted from the facility on Dec. 1.

A consortium member, Nido Petroleum earlier said that the third cargo would be due before the end of the year.