80% success rate predicted for new Malampaya gas wells

State-owned Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), one of the proponents of the Malampaya gas-to-power project, has predicted an “80-percent success rate” for the drilling of new wells that will be conducted by the consortium in two years.

PNOC-EC president Franz Josef George Alvarez said at a Senate hearing on Friday that the consortium was preparing for the drilling of two additional wells scheduled in 2025.

“If successful, by 2026 we will have additional production. The probability of success is around 80 percent,” Alvarez told senators at the Senate sub-finance committee hearing on the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program of PNOC-EC.

Alvarez was responding to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s question as to whether there would be gas found in the wells to ensure that the proposed P2-billion budget for PNOC-EC’s participation in the exploration would was justifiable.

The Malampaya consortium—composed of PNOC-EC, ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.’s Prime Energy Resources BV, and Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp.—was given another 15 years to operate and search for new gas deposits to augment the gas field’s depleting reserves.

Malampaya, an indigenous gas field that supplies a fifth of the country’s electricity needs through First Gen Corp.’s natural gas plants in Batangas province, is expected to dry up by 2027.

PNOC-EC holds a 10-percent stake in the project, while Prime and Udenna both have 45-percent stakes.

Alvarez noted that the consortium would invest at least $690 million in the next three years to further explore the remaining gas deposits at the field in offshore northwest Palawan province.

PNOC-EC will spend some P3.45 billion on the work program consisting of geological and geophysical studies, according to Alvarez.

Its total proposed budget for 2024 was pegged at P11.94 billion, 94 percent of which would be used for exploration and production projects.

The consortium previously estimated that further exploration in the near fields would yield an additional 210 billion cubic feet of natural gas. INQ