Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
Through its newly
institutionalized oil and gas subsidiary Enexor, the Ayala group is targeting
the next gas discovery in the country that will match the scale of production
of the Malampaya field.
Enexor through its
subsidiary Palawan 55 has 37.5-percent stake in Service Contract 55, which is a
petroleum block in Southwest Palawan that had shown initial potential for
commercial gas discovery.
The Ayala firm has two
other partners in the venture – Australian firm Century Red Pte and
Filipino-owned Pryce Gas of the Escaños.
Palawan 55, in turn, is 75-percent owned by Enexor and the balance of
25-percent shareholdings by PHINMA Energy, which is also an acquisition firm of
the Ayala group from the Del Rosarios.
On the next Malampaya
aspiration, Enexor Chairman and CEO John Eric T. Francia asserted that
“Although it’s a dream, it’s not a far-fetched dream. But for you to realize
that potential or realize that dream, you need to invest. Otherwise, how can
you discover the next Malampaya?”
He added that for the
Ayala company “our position is, we’d be willing to put in some capital – it is
not our intention just to do a ‘carry model’ where we get diluted to single
digit-percent especially if we have very strong partner in the future. We would
certainly like to put our skin in the game as well.”
The first step for the
company will be to continue its ‘resource assessment’ and study as well as
undertake quantitative interpretation (QI) of data already gathered from
seismic surveys – and the next one will be the scheduled drilling of appraisal
well in the next two years.
Enexor Chief Operating Officer Raymundo A. Reyes Jr. said the programmed
drilling shall be focused proximate to the Hawkeye prospect and the Cinco well.
Further, the resource
assessment will be based on data already secured from seismic surveys covering
1,000 square kilometers of the petroleum block, but Reyes said they may still
carry out expanded seismic surveys in the coming months. The SC55 block covers
a total area of 9,880 square kilometers.
“We committed to drill
one well within two years of the appraisal period – and additional
interpretation of the seismic data. The appraisal well, it doesn’t need to be
on the Hawkeye prospect,” he said, although he qualified that it will be at its
vicinity.
The budget for the
drilling had been set at US$30 million to US$40 million, according to Reyes –
and that the company is now scouring the rig markets for its onward drilling
plan.
Following the
completion of the targeted well drilling, Francia indicated that the company
will work next on securing strategic deep-pocketed partners – especially if the
appraisal well eventually yields prospect of commercial-scale gas find.
Francia said “at this
point, it’s a little bit too early for us to advance our talks with partners
because we want to complete first the QI (quantitative interpretation) of the
resource. We’ll start our partnership plans toward the end of the year and
again that will give us ample time to prepare.”
He expounded that the
Ayala group decided to place its bet on the upstream oil and gas venture
because if there would be eventual successful discovery, this will complement
its targeted 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy portfolio in the country.
The company, he
stressed, is “looking at it from a full value chain perspective – we’re already
in the downstream power so if we are successful developing this upstream fuel
supply, then we’ll have natural synergies.”
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