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AUSTRALIAN firm Nido Petroleum Ltd. may tap a “strategic
partner” to explore for oil and gas in the North West Palawan
Basin, where it has recently completed large seismic surveys.
Nido has rights over a large contiguous acreage
covering 30,620 square kilometers in the area. The company has
acquired about 9,860 kilometers of 2D and 1,325 square kilometers of
3D seismic data in the area over the last three years.
“Nido intends to retain a minority working
interest in the basin in order to participate in the success that it
believes will result from the upcoming exploration drilling
program,” Jon Pattillo, Nido exploration head, said.
Based on the company’s surveys, the area has a
potential reserve of 11.6 billion barrels of oil and has identified
20 prospective sites, which contain probable reserves from 97
million to 2.7 billion barrels of the commodity.
Given the sizes of the identified areas,
Pattillo said “just one discovery” has the potential to reap
lucrative dividends as reviewed by an independent third party.
“We intend to drill up to 20 of these large
prospects over the coming years,” he added.
He said its shares in the net revenue at the
Galoc field, which is expected to churn out oil within the month,
would fund these proposed drillings in the next three to five years.
In light of this development, he said Nido is
inviting industry players to submit expressions of interest to
participate in its Palawan portfolio.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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