Petronas abandons Mindoro oil drilling

Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd, the state oil and gas company of Malaysia, withdrew its 80 percent participation from an exploration contract area in offshore Mindoro island.

PNOC Exploration Corp., a unit of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co., confirmed the decision of Petronas.

Petronas decided to transfer its entire interest in service contract 47 to PNOC Exploration.

PNOC Exploration owns 19.4 percent in the contract while PetroEnergy Resources and Basic Energy hold 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

Petronas pulled out from the exploration after “Kamia well 1 did not result in an oil discovery although some oil shows were encountered,” an official of PNOC Exploration said.

The consortium operating the contract area drilled the Kamia-1 well in September 2007 with minor oil and gas shows but Petronas found the results not encouraging.

PNOC Exploration has sought approval of the Energy Department for a six-month extension of its work commitments in the area.

“Work commitments for the six-month extension include post-well evaluation of Kamia-1 and delineation of areas of refurbishment,” said PNOC Exploration.

PNOC Exploration and Petronas signed an agreement in June 2005 to develop the contract area, which covers 14,667 square kilometers in the offshore area south of Mindoro Island and west of Panay Island.

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