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WE have
a new producing oil field.
Energy
Secretary Angelo Reyes said Tuesday at the sidelines of
the Cabinet meeting, “We are pleased to announce that
the development of Galoc oil field is completed and that
the first flow of oil is estimated to be commencing on
June 16, 2008. This will be the first time oil-field
development in the Philippines since 1992 will occur.”
He said
the estimated daily production is in the range of 17,000
to 20,000 barrels of “premium” oil per day—whether he
was equating it with Dubai sweet crude, he did not
say—but that’s about 4 million barrels up to end of
December.
Reyes
told Palace reporters after the Cabinet meeting that the
Galoc oil field off northwestern Palawan, operated by
Galoc Production Co., will generate an estimated $1.4
billion in foreign-exchange savings for the country
during its expected two-year life span, or until the
last extraction of the reserves, estimated at 10 million
to 20 million barrels.
His
estimate of foreign-exchange savings was based on the
current rate of $135 per barrel.
There
may be additional reserves, and Reyes said “additional
exploration work will be done” to see if such other
nearby reserves exist.
He said
the Galoc yield together with oil production in other
fields in the country will raise total domestic
production to 30,000 barrels per day, or almost 10
percent of local demand.
“The
Philippines will earn from the sales of crude oil, which
will be benchmarked at international prices, and with
domestic refineries being given the first priority. So
rather than export, it will be consumed locally,” he
said.
Reyes
also said executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s
largest publicly traded international oil and gas
company, will call on President Arroyo on Friday to
discuss its interest in oil and gas exploration in the
Philippines, which he described as “very, very
encouraging” for the sector.
“This is
significant because Exxon Mobil...will not go into any
area unless the reserves they believe are large amounts
of quality oil. To us, this is very significant, because
this will signal that the probability of large and
quality oil being found in the
Philippines
is now extremely high,” he said.
Exxon
had earlier agreed to lease an offshore block, Service
Contract 56, located in the Sulu Sea, which is held by
Malaysian exploration company Mitra Energy Ltd. |
