Offshore Galoc oil well nearly depleted

MANILA, Philippines—Production at the Galoc oil field off Palawan reached 6.92 million barrels as of end-March 2011, already depleting close to 70 percent of its estimated reserves of 10 million barrels.

In a regulatory filing, Australian firm Otto Energy Ltd. said the Galoc oil field has also managed to deliver a total of 20 shipments of Palawan light crude to its refinery customers since it began production in October 2008.

For the first quarter of 2011 alone, the Galoc oil field produced 651,551 barrels, for which Otto Energy received $5.93 million from operator Galoc Production Co. (GPC), after deducting operating and lifting costs.

During the first quarter, the consortium also made two shipments of 706,038 barrels and is expected to complete another off-take within the third week of April. The difference between the off-take and production volumes represented movements in crude oil inventories, according to Otto Energy.

Meanwhile, since the consortium has already depleted close to 70 percent of the reserves at the Galoc well, the group is now preparing for a potential phase 2 development, which is aimed at accessing additional oil in the reservoir and increase oil production within Service Contract 14C.

“Reservoir development activities, including both interpretation and mapping of the recently reprocessed seismic data and future development well location selection/ranking continued in the quarter,” Otto Energy said.

The consortium has been looking at the Galoc North prospect as a potential site for additional drillings.

Under the initial Galoc Phase 2 development options, the joint venture targets to increase reserves by 5 million barrels of oil with its plan to drill two new wells, which are estimated to yield about 4,000 barrels of oil per day.

These wells may be drilled in the northern portion of the Galoc structure to boost production and access undeveloped reserves.

Otto Energy holds a 31.38-percent interest in the operator GPC, which in turn has a 59.84-percent interest in the service contract license. Another Australian firm, Nido Petroleum Ltd., has a 22.28-percent stake in the SC 14C license. Other stakeholders are Philodrill Corp., Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp./Linapacan Oil Gas and Power Corp., and Forum Energy Philippines Corp.