Philippine PNOC-EC plans drilling for 2014

PNOC-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), the upstream energy arm of state-run Philippine National Oil Co., plans to proceed with 2 drilling activities this year.
Pedro A. Aquino, Jr., PNOC-EC president and CEO, said the company will drill one exploratory well each within Service Contract (SC) 37 located onshore Cagayan and SC 63 in waters southwest of Palawan.

“We’re actually pushing for the drilling in SC 37 in Cagayan and in SC 63, together with Nido [Petroleum Ltd.], this year,” he said.“For SC 37, we’re starting it (the drilling) the Q1 2014. For (SC) 63, we already purchased the rig. We’re drilling towards the third quarter.”

Budget for SC 37 will be smaller than that of SC 63 because the latter will involve offshore drilling. The official, in July last year, said drilling of Mangosteen-1 well in SC 37 will cost around $5-7 million and drilling for Baragatan prospect in SC 63 will be around $23 million.

Besides drilling activities for this year, Mr. Aquino said PNOC-EC also hopes to find a partner for its planned coal-fired power plants in Isabela and Zamboanga Sibugay this year.

“We still have to do bidding because we’re looking for a joint venture partner,” he said, noting the firm won’t proceed with the project without a partner.

Asked on the timetable for the project, Mr. Aquino said: “Hopefully we can do it (the bidding) within the year.”

He cited interest from several Japanese and Korean firms like Marubeni Corp. and Korea Electric Power Corp.