Exploration giant BHP Billiton has submitted a formal notice of “force majeure” to the Department of Energy as it moves to secure its Service Contract 55 license, despite its inability to comply with its current contractual obligations.
Australian firm Nido Petroleum Ltd. plans to drill an exploration well in a new prospect within the area covered by Service Contract 63 in offshore Palawan.
Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is looking for a major oil or natural gas field overseas as its next major venture.
Australian firm Otto Energy Ltd. has bagged the contract to explore and develop prospective oil and gas blocks off the Mindoro Cuyo basin, where it plans to invest an initial $500,000 in the first 18-month period.
Forum Energy Plc, which is exploring for oil and gas within the highly contested Recto Bank off the West Philippine Sea, has secured a two-year extension for its work program under Service Contract 72.
PNOC Exploration Corp., the upstream oil and coal arm of state-run Philippine National Oil Co., expects to start operating within the year its two new compressed natural gas (CNG) facilities, which are deemed critical in helping boost the government’s natural gas program.
Exploration firm The Philodrill Corp. is targeting to breach the P2-billion net income mark in two to three years’ time as it anticipates higher revenues from the doubling of oil production at the Galoc oil field in offshore Palawan.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc sees the Philippines as one of Asia’s more attractive markets where it can supply natural gas to cater to the rising global demand for alternative fuels.
Frontier Oil Corp. plans to resume by early next year the exploration and drilling within Service Contract 52 in Cagayan, following a recent suspension of some exploration and pre-drilling activities in the field.
According to Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., Frontier Oil has decided to temporarily suspend the Nassiping-2 acid stimulation program due to an “obstruction in the well bore that prevented conveyance of equipment to the zone of interest.”
Shell Philippines Exploration (SPEx) BV has warned that the proposed development of the Camago-Malampaya oil leg (CMOL) might “potentially” put in danger the existing operations of the Malampaya natural gas field in offshore Palawan.
Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan is hoping to resume by early next year talks with state-owned China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC) on its possible acquisition of a stake in the Recto Bank exploration project off the West Philippine Sea.
Shell Exploration BV, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Co. and South China Resources Inc. have relinquished their rights over Service Contract 60, citing the “dismal results” of their exploration activities in the oil and gas blocks in northeast Palawan.
