Nido to drill new well at Galoc Oil Field

MANILA, Philippines - A new well will be drilled at the Galoc Oil Field offshore Palawan after results of a recent drilling showed no clear signs of oil and gas in commercial quantities, Australian oil and gas company Nido Petroleum Limited said.

Nido, the oil field operator, said drillship Deepsea Metro I has completed drilling works through the Galoc Clastic Unit reservoir of the Galoc Mid Area.

While preliminary data indicated the reservoir unit contains hydrocarbons and water, results were still inconclusive, the company said.

“At this stage the Galoc-7 well results are inconclusive in terms of the potential commerciality of the Galoc Mid Area of Block C1 of Service Contract (SC) 14,” Nido said.

Meanwhile, Deepsea Metro I is now in the process of plugging and abandoning the Galoc-7 well and preparing to drill out the Galoc-7ST-1 well in the Galoc Central Field Area.

The Australian firm said it would continue to evaluate the results of the Galoc-7 well and would incorporate this information into the relevant sub-surface models along with the results of the Galoc-7ST-1 well once drilled.

The Galoc Oil Field is comprised of the producing Central Field Area and the undrilled northern extension Galoc Mid Area, where drilling of Galoc-7 appraisal well is considered to determine contingent reserves.

In August last year, Nido said ODIN Reservoir Consultants Pty Ltd. completed an independent assessment, which is an update to the previous work by Gaffney Cline & Associates.

ODIN’s assessment showed the Galoc field is estimated to contain contingent resources of as low estimate (1C), 13.3 MMstb as best estimate (2C) and as highest estimate (3C).

Nido holds a combined 55.88 percent participating interest in Block C1 of SC 14 through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Nido Production (Galoc) Pty. Ltd. and Galoc Production Co. WLL.

Other partners in the consortium are Galoc Production Co. No. 2 Pte. Ltd. (26.84 percent), Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp. and Linapacan Oil Gas & Power Corp., (7.79 percent) Philodrill Corp. (7.79 percent) and Forum Energy Philippines Corp. (2.28 percent).