Drillship of PXP Energy, partner arrives in Peru
By Lenie Lectura -January 10, 2020
from Business Mirror
Listed upstream oil and gas firm PXP Energy Corp. on Thursday said a drillship has arrived in Lima, Peru, ahead of drilling a well located in Block Z-38 Tumbes Basin, Peru.
“Karoon Energy Ltd. Karoon is pleased to announce the Stena Forth Drillship has arrived in the Port of Callao, Lima, Peru, ahead of drilling the Marina-1 exploration well located in Block Z-38 Tumbes Basin, Peru,” PXP said in a disclosure. Karoon, a partner of PXP, is the operator and has a 40-percent net interest in Block Z-38.
Pitkin Petroleum Ltd., a 53.43-percent owned subsidiary of PXP, holds a 25-percent participating interest in the same Block. The remaining 25 percent is held by UK-listed oil explorer Tullow Oil.
“The Stena Forth will remain at the Port of Callao for one to two weeks to refuel and change the crew before continuing on to the Marina-1 well location.
Karoon expects the vessel to clear customs and final permits to be received over the coming weeks. The well is expected to spud during the last week of January 2020,” PXP said.
The Marina prospect has a gross prospective resource best estimate of 256 million barrels of oil. This prospect will be the first well to be drilled in Block Z-38.
PXP Energy Corp. is an upstream oil and gas company incorporated in the Philippines in December 2007 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Philex Mining Corp. It was previously known as Philex Petroleum Corp.
In November 2019, the company reported that it trimmed its losses to P21.8 million from January to September, from P49.1 million in the same period a year ago.
The company attributed the decline to lower oil production costs, lower depletion rate, and higher other income charges, which was partially offset by lower petroleum revenues.
Petroleum revenues declined by 51.8 percent at P51.1 million, from P106.1 million at end-September last year, brought about by lower output and drop in crude oil price in the Service Contract 14C1 Galoc, and the plug and abandonment of SC 14A Nido and SC 14B Matinloc production wells.
The company reduced expenses by 45.7 percent at P94.2 million at end-September this year, from P173.7 million in September 2018. This was mainly on account of lower depletion cost in SC 14C1 Galoc following the decline in output and the cessation of operational costs in SC 14A Nido and SC 14B Matinloc.
PXP recently submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Department of Energy for the strategic development and utilization of an Integrated Gas Hub in Malampaya upon the expiry of SC 38 in 2024.
