Published
By Myna Velasco
While work program at
its service contracts on the domestic front had been fledgling, the subsidiary
of Pangilinan-led PXP Energy Corporation is gaining traction on its petroleum
exploration venture in offshore Peru, primarily getting boosted with the entry
of a new partner.
Its investment in that
petroleum block is via subsidiary Pitkin Petroleum Ltd.’s corporate vehicle
Pitkin Petroleum Peru, which cornered 25 percent participating interest in Peru
Block Z-38 in that country. PXP Energy owns 53.43 percent in Pitkin
Petroleum.
The operatorship of
that upstream petroleum venture in Peru is currently under listed firm Karoon
Gas Australia Ltd.
The Australian firm farmed
out 35 percent interest in the Peru petroleum block to Tullow Peru Ltd., which
is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tullow Oil Plc.
In their deal,
acquiring firm Tullow has been prescribed to fund 43.75 percent of the cost of
the first exploration well. That will be capped at US$27.5 million (at 100
percent), beyond which Tullow will pay its 35 percent share.
It was further provided
that Tullow will be paying US$2.0 million “upon completion with a further $7.0
million payable upon declaration of commercial discovery and submission of a
development plan to Perupetro.”
“The agreement remains
subject to the satisfaction of certain licensing conditions and regulatory
approvals,” a media statement from Karoon Gas has noted.
It added that
“following the completion of the farm-out well, Tullow will have an option to
assume operatorship of the block.”
In the Philippines, the
ventures of PXP Energy have been hurdled chiefly by concerns straddling
diplomatic row over the West Philippine Sea.
One of its major
prospects – in the Recto Bank, had been stopped on its drilling program because
of a moratorium on exploration that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had
enforced on the so-called “territories of conflict.”
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