𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐙 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐎𝐒 𝐉𝐑.

The Government’s commitment to preserve and maintain the investment incentives for service contractors under Presidential Decree 87 has been met with renewed confidence and strong interest by local and foreign investors in the oil and gas sector.

An early indication is that the Department of Energy (DOE) recently allowed the Nido Petroleum Philippines Pty. Ltd., the Technical Operator/Operator of Service Contract 6B to proceed with the site survey of their drilling locations in their service contract areas by the last quarter of this year.

The activities will pave the way for the drilling of 2 wells – 1 exploration and one appraisal, by the first half of next year.

For SC 6B, the appraisal well for the Cadlao oil field could lead to early oil production towards the second half of 2023 while the recoverable volumes expected from the oil field are 5 to 6 million barrels of oil.

While it is a first step, it signals the Government’s intent to maximize indigenous resources and has attracted strong interest from foreign investors in the Philippine upstream oil and gas sector.

Cadlao is an old oil field that was last produced in the early 1990s with over 11 million barrels. The operatorship of this oil field was taken over by Nido Petroleum from Forum Energy Philippines Corporation (FEPC) in February 2022 to fund the 100 percent development costs, which include drilling, extended well tests, and subsequent development of the said oil field.