Australian oil firm to explore 3 Cebu prospects

MANILA, Philippines - Australian upstream oil firm Gas2Grid Ltd. will conduct exploration works on three prospects in onshore Cebu island until early next year.

A successful work program will allow the company to fuel a natural gas power plant, the company said.

Specifically, it will conduct a workover for Malolos-1, which will involve the removal and transfer of tubes to Malolos-1 from Nuevo Malolos-1, and oil and gas flow testing.

“The anticipated completion of the two objectives from this workover program will take approximately six weeks,” Gas2Grid said.

The Sydney-based firm holds the 750-square-kilometer petroleum Service Contract 44 located in onshore Cebu island.

Gas2Grid will also conduct exploratory drilling at the Gumamela-1 prospect, which has an estimated 15 million barrels of recoverable oil potential.

“Gumamela-1, the next well to be drilled in the three well exploration program using the company owned Rig-2, is located approximately three kilometres south of the recently drilled Jacob-1,” Gas2Grid said.

The project will take almost a month, with rig mobilization activities already ongoing.

Gas2Grid said Gumamela-1 also has good prospects for the sandstone reservoirs.

“The same sandstones are oil and gas bearing in Malolos-1 and in the nearby Toledo and Alegria oil fields,” the company said.

Lastly, the upstream oil firm will restart exploring the Jacob-1 well after it completes the workover and flow testing in Malolos-1.

Jacob-1 has a recoverable oil potential of 50 million barrels.

In July, Gas2Grid secured an extension of the service contract from the Department of Energy (DOE), allowing the company to conduct a drilling program until January 2014.

Gas2Grid, which also has projects in France and Australia, has entered into a co-operative deed with Japan’s Marubeni. Marubeni has an option to fund and develop any power units needed to generate electricity.

To date, there are 27 service contracts in the Philippines involving Shell Philippines Exploration, Nido Petroleum and BHP Billiton. However, only the Malampaya and Galoc oil fields are in regular production.

The DOE is pursuing energy independence and sustainability through the development of indigenous energy resources like coal, petroleum and natural gas.