Galoc's Palawan oil field resumes operations

MANILA, Philippines - Galoc Production Co. (GPC) has resumed oil drilling activities in Service Contract 14-C in offshore Palawan after temporarily halting operations late last month due to a technical problem.

“Offloading is ongoing as a routine operation with crude oil being transferred from the FPSO to the off-take tanker following replacement of the floating export hose,” the company said.

The Galoc oil field is considered as the next biggest find in the country after the $4.5-billion Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project undertaken by the consortium of Shell, Chevron and PNOC-Exploration Corp.

Last month, GPC decided to suspend oil production at the oil field due to a delay in off-loading crude oil from the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

GPC is the lead operator in SC 14-C with a participating interest of nearly 60 percent. The rest of the SC 14-c consortium includes Nido Petroleum, Oriental Petroleum, Philodrill and Forum Energy.

Earlier, Nido Petroleum Ltd., an Australia-based oil and gas exploration company, said it is contemplating on proceeding to the second phase of its oil drilling activities in SC 14-C.

“The Galoc joint venture continues to assess further facility and subsurface development options for Phase 2 of the Galoc oil field development,” Nido said.

It said it is optimistic the exploration area would yield more potential reserves.

“In support of these efforts, it is important for Nido to have a more current and meaningful understanding of the developed reserves, the undeveloped reserves and any other remaining potential in the field,” it said.

To meet this challenge, Nido said it is presently updating its reserves assessment of the Galoc oil field to incorporate performance data through to the end of September 2009. — Donnabelle Gatdula