SHELL Philippines Exploration in Quest for More Oil

SHELL Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX) has started to drill an additional exploratory well at the Malampaya gas field.

Sources said the company commenced drilling in the Camago-2 well at the Malampaya field in offshore Northwest Palawan on April 25 using its contracted semi-submersible drilling rig Atwood Falcon.

With its 2.7 trillion cubic feet of reserves, the Malampaya field is the largest gas producer in the country to date. It fuels three power plants in Luzon with a combined output of about 2,700 megawatts.

Jose Jerome Pascuall III, SPEX finance manager, earlier said the additional exploration well eyed for Malampaya will help assess the viability of further production from the natural gas field.

“Once we are able to finalize the drilling and we know the outcome of the drilling — then we can say if its worth further investments,” he said.

This is part of SPEX’s plan to intensify drilling operation at the Malampaya, which will hinge on the success of the additional exploration well.

The company will invest $80 million for the initial drilling to identify the volume of reserves in the Malampaya.

The Malampaya field is within Service Contract (SC) 38, which is operated by SPEX. The latter controls a 45 percent stake in the petroleum block while its partners Chevron-Texaco and Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation owns the remaining 45 and 10 percent, respectively.

The Malampaya gas field was initially discovered in 1989. SPEX acquired a 50 percent participating interest in SC 38 in 1990. The consortium discovered the Malampaya gas field two years later.

In 1998, the gas field’s operations was declared commercial. In 2001 the Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power Project was inaugurated. The project has helped cut the country’s dependence on oil imports by between 20 and 30 percent

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Shell, May 3, 2010;