Nido Petroleum confirms better-than-expected oil flow

MANILA, Philippines - Australia-based Nido Petroleum Ltd. said the flow of oil in its Tindalo oil well in Northwest Palawan has surpassed their expectations.

In a report, Nido said some 56,708 barrels of oil along with approximately 5,384 barrels of water have been produced from the well.

“The well productivity exceeded expectations with high rate testing confirming well productivity in excess of 18,500 barrels per day,” it added.

This flow rate surpassed the latest oil find in the nearby Galoc well production which is also being undertaken by a consortium led by Nido.

Nido, the lead operator of Service Contract 54A which contains the Tindalo field, owns 42.4 percent of the Tindalo exploration block. Kairiki Energy Ltd., another Australian firm, holds 30.1 percent while Trafigura Ventures III BV, one of the world’s largest independent trading commodities firms, holds 15 percent and TG World Corp., 12.5 percent.

Nido said it expects the Tindalo oil field to produce oil at a rate of 7,000-15,000 barrels per day as the company has set aside $20 million to bring to production the first well.

The Tindalo field has likely recoverable oil volumes of 5.1 million barrels or a range of 1.5 million to 9.1 million barrels.

The Tindalo oil field was discovered by the Tindalo-1 exploration well in October 2008 and plugged and suspended as a possible future producer.

Nido is an oil and gas exploration and production company with over 29,450 square kilometers of contiguous exploration and development assets in the Northwest Palawan basin.

It also has interests in SC 54B (60 percent), SC 58 (50 percent) and SC 63 (50 percent).

Nido’s core producing asset to date is the Galoc oil field in which it has a 22.879-percent interest. Galoc lies within SC 14 some 60 km offshore Palawan and started production in October 2008.

Meanwhile, the company also reported that a series of tests is still being conducted in the Tindalo well.

 “The water processing equipment is not available for use due to an equipment fault and the field is being produced at a restricted rate of approximately 6,000 bbls/day for operational purposes. This equipment is scheduled to be replaced in the coming days thereby allowing production rates to be optimized; and the water that has been produced to date may be either fluid introduced to the reservoir during the drilling and/or completion of the well or alternatively it may be formation water. Produced water samples are being analyzed in Singapore to confirm the water source,” it said.

Nido said it will update the market once the reservoir management plan has been finalized including the optimized rate for the EWT.

Last June 6, the oil exploration firm reported a flow rate of 15,000 barrels per day.