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NIDO Petroleum Ltd. (Nido) said initial estimates indicate that the
Galoc field’s two recently completd production wells may churn
out more oil than its current flow rates.
Galoc Production Co. (GPC), the field’s
operator, earlier announced that it established a flow of 5,200 and
6,150 barrels of oil per day from the Galoc 3 and Galoc 4 production
wells, respectively.
GPC said that the flows, pending further tests
to be conducted once the field’s floating production, storage and
offloading vessel – which will act as its oil platform – is
attached to the wells, are consistent with its earlier estimates
that put the Galoc’s reserve potential at 10 million barrels of
oil, or lower than a Nido commissioned study conducted by
Singapore’s Gaffney, Cline and Associates (GCA) of 41.9 million
barrels of oil reserves.
The less than 12,000 barrel of oil per day
combined rate of the two production wells, however, was constrained
to less than their maximum flowing potential by the Galoc field’s
drill ship, the Energy Searcher, and its drilling program.
“These constraints will not be applicable
once production to the [oil platform] commences as the [platform]
has the capacity to manage higher flow rates than the Energy
Searcher,” Nido said in a statement.
Nido’s preliminary in-house estimates of well
productivity under flow conditions to the platform suggest the
maximum flowing potential of the two wells exceeds the 25,000
barrels of oil per day capacity of the vessel.
However, Nido said that the field’s flow rate
will be restrained to maximize oil recovery over the life of the
field.
To ascertain its projection, Nido said that it
will again tap the services of GCA to undertake a revision to its
Galoc reserves certification based on all the new information
obtained during the field’s development drilling and completion
program.
“In addition to reserves volumes, this
independent study will address the productivity estimates and this
report is expected prior to first oil,” it added.
If the Australian firm’s estimates hold true,
the Galoc field will significantly boost its current projected
output of less than half a million barrels per month and the
country’s oil production of 17,000 barrels per month.
Galoc’s oil wells are all set to be hooked up
to the platform where they will undergo a detailed testing program
to confirm their full flow capacity and optimum production level.
The field is expected to produce its first oil in late April.
The Galoc oil field is run by GPC, which
holds a 58.29 percent participating interest, with Nido, Philodrill
Corp., Oriental Petroleum, Forum Energy Philippines Corp., Alcorn
Gold Resources Corp. and Petro Energy Resources Corp. having stakes
of 22.28 percent, 7.02 percent, 7.58 percent, 2.27 percent, 1.53
percent and 1.03 percent, respectively.
-- Euan Paulo C. Anońuevo
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