Trans-Asia, PetroEnergy pursue Leyte oil project

THE CONSORTIUM operating Service Contract 51 in San Isidro, Leyte plans to invest roughly $6.7 million (or approximately P274 million) in its drilling program under the fifth exploration subphase.

In separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange Friday, consortium members Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. and PetroEnergy Resources Corp. said that the fifth exploration subphase would start on Feb. 1, 2013 and end on Jan. 31, 2014.

The group likewise opted to drill by mid-2013 one onshore exploratory well, specifically the Duhat-2 well, which will cost at least $750,000 (P30.75 million).

The drilling program will allow the partners to tap a potential 62 million barrels of oil.

Field operator Otto Energy Ltd. earlier reported that the drilling of the Duhat-1 well last year indicated the presence of oil and gas.

“All of this evidence demonstrates that Leyte and in particular the San Isidro area contains an active petroleum system. New seismic data have confirmed the presence of a large anticline with the potential to host a significant oil and/or gas accumulation… all the elements exist for a potential major hydrocarbon discovery on Leyte,” Otto Energy earlier said.

The planned Duhat-2 well is programmed to drill to a minimum depth of 1,000 meters.

“With the excellent fiscal terms in place in the Philippines, even a modest oil discovery at Duhat is likely to be commercially viable. Dependent on the scale of the discovery, oil can be produced and transported either by truck or pipeline to barges at the nearby San Isidro wharf less than 10 kilometers away. Any discovery could be quickly completed and put on a long term production test,” the company had said.

“With low onshore drilling costs and a host of follow up potential, SC-51 North has the ability to transform Otto Energy and its partners into significant onshore producers of crude in a short timeframe,” it added.

According to Otto Energy, the available surface information combined with new and old seismic data suggested that the San Isidro block was only one of a number of large structures covered by the service contract license. Thus, the success of the joint venture partners at Duhat has the “potential to not only identify a new oil field but a new petroleum province.”