Alegria set to start commercial crude production

The Alegria petroleum field in Cebu can start commercial crude oil production immediately, with the output ready for use as bunker fuel in local industries, according to energy officials.

At the same time, the operator of the Alegria project is fine-tuning plans for a power plant built near the production site to harness the natural gas.

Energy Undersecretary Donato Marcos said in an interview that Alegria’s production well No. 8 was ready to churn out 180 barrels to 200 barrels daily while a second one—well No. 3—would be ready soon.

“The output volume at 360 barrels to 400 barrels daily—or about 10,000 barrels a month—is small relative to other production sites that we already have in the Philippines,” Marcos said.

He was referring to the Galoc oil field which, as of May 2017 was the country’s biggest crude producer at 4,100 barrels daily.

“But this (indigenous crude oil production) is good for us in terms of morale,” Marcos said. “Moreover, the output will be used locally (because of the small volume), unlike Galoc’s output which is sold abroad.”

Marcos also said the Alegria operator, China International Mining Petroleum Co. Ltd. (CIMP)—whose parent firm is based in Macau, China—is considering to build a power plant to use this latest source of indigenous natural gas.

“The key detail that they want to determine is how much the capacity of the power plant could be, which may be 3 megawatts or smaller or bigger,” Marcos said.

In a separate interview, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the Alegria field had the potential to support a 60-MW power plant.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and CIMP—which holds Service Contract No. 49 covering Alegria—last Wednesday announced that the field held commercial quantities of oil and gas.

They said they discovered in Alegria an estimated 27.93 million barrels of oil (mmbo) and 9.42 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas.