Nido Petroleum Ltd. of Australia and its joint venture partners are still keen on pursuing the expansion of the Galoc oil field in northwest Palawan to boost production.
“In relation to the potential Galoc phase three development, the joint venture continued to progress sub-surface and preliminary engineering studies and is still considering a possible appraisal well in the mid-Galoc area of the field to confirm the commerciality of the project” Nido managing director Mike Fisher said in the company’s quarterly report ending December 31, 2015.
Fisher said Nido, operator of the Galoc oil field, was evaluating new exploration, development and production assets “and is actively considering a number of opportunities.”
He said while the low oil price environment remained a challenge, company “is continuing to take all steps necessary to maximize shareholder return by embarking on significant cost-cutting initiatives and reducing expenditure where possible.”
The Galoc oil field produced a gross average daily of production of 5,707 barrels with a total output of 525,024 barrels during the last quarter of 2015.
“Nido is well positioned to capitalize on opportunities in this current low environment and we are looking forward to meeting the challenges ahead as we strive to build a significant regional upstream E & P business,” Fisher said earlier.
Nido and its joint venture partners earlier unveiled a plan to develop the mid-Galoc area northwest off Palawan to increase production of the country’s largest oil field as early as July last year.
Nido, which has a 55.88-percent interest in service contract 14 C, said the mid-Galoc area was being considered a potential development project using horizontal drilling and sub-sea completion technology.
The preliminary development plans for mid-Galoc are based on drilling two horizontal, subsea development wells, tied back to the Galoc field floating production storage and offloading facilities, or FPSO.
Crude oil will be sold by ship-to-ship transfer from the FPSO to the shuttle tanker.
Gaffney Cline and Associates ealirer completed an independent contingent resources assessment of the mid-Galoc area of the Galoc oil field.
GSA said the mid-Galoc area was estimated to contain resources of 6.2 million to 14.6 million stock tank barrels.
Nido earlier said oil production from the new field was expected to start on Jan. 1 2018, with an uncertainty range in initial per well oil rate between 2,500 barrels per day and 3,000 per day, attributable to variable reservoir performance.
The Galoc oil field is estimated to continue production beyond 2020. The Galoc oil field was earlier estimated to contain 25 million barrels of oil. It first produced oil in 2008.
