Philodrill boosts stake in oil fields

Publicly listed The Philodrill Corp. has acquired the minority participating interests of its affiliate in two petroleum service contracts, which cover some 109,000 hectares of existing and potential petroleum areas in northwest Palawan.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philodrill said it had acquired from Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corp. a 7.22 percent participating interest in SC 6A or the Octon block and 5 percent in the SC 14 Tara block.

The deal was effected through a deed of assignment and assumption.

It was, however, not made clear as to how the interests of the involved consortium members will change after the transaction.

Data from the Department of Energy showed that Philodrill is the operator of SC 6A while the Tara block is operated by Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp.

According to data from the website of Philodrill, the consortium operating the Octon block planned to spend $546,000 (roughly P23 million) for its work program this year.

The work program involves the reprocessing of some 400 square kilometer of 3D data over the northern block to firm up the various exploration prospects and play in the area including the West Malajon, Barselisa and Salvacion.

The Octon block is said to contain at least 3 billion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas reserves.