The Philodrill Corp. has applied with the Department of Energy for a development and production petroleum service contract to expand and revitalize the West Linapacan Block, the company said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Thursday.
The proposed contract for Service Contract 14C2 seeks to increase the current 17,724-hectare area to about 82,000 hectares. The expansion would incorporate adjacent open acreage to the east of the site. Philodrill and its joint venture partners submitted the formal application under a new framework introduced by the energy department for expiring service contracts that have ongoing production or validated reserves.
Philodrill aims to use modern technology to restore West Linapacan A and bring West Linapacan B into production.
The original service contract was awarded on Dec 17, 1975, and its final 15-year extension is set to expire on Dec 17, 2025. The block consists of structural traps formed by fault-related folding, with a main reservoir in the fractured Linapacan Limestone.
West Linapacan A was discovered in the early 1990s and began production in 1992. While peak production reached 18,700 barrels of oil per day for four months, increasing water production eventually hindered performance. The field was shut in January 1996 due to uneconomic oil rates and low global prices after producing a cumulative 8.5 million stock tank barrels.
The company noted that West Linapacan B remains undeveloped despite proving its productivity during tests in 1993. Technical data point to hydrocarbon accumulations in that area may extend beyond the current structural boundaries, it said.
