Israeli company Ratio Petroleum, the operator of Service Contract No. 76, is looking at a projected minimum expenditure of $34.35 million to develop the East-Palawan Basin, the Department of Energy said Thursday.
The capital expenditure will be used for studies, data gathering and drilling activities over the initial seven-year contract duration.
SC 76 is located in the northern side of the East-Palawan Basin covering an area of 648,000 hectares, with water depths ranging from 80 to 1,700 meters.
Under Ratio Petroleum’s approved phased work program, the company has seven years in exploration period to be undertaken in three phases. The first phase covers the acquisition of 2D seismic data, which began on Oct. 17, 2018.
The second phase consists of the acquisition of 3D seismic data that would further refine the image of the area’s subsurface geology covering the most prospective clastic and carbonate leads. For the third phase, the drilling of one exploration well would commence to ascertain the presence of oil and gas in the area.