NorAsian to drill exploratory
well in east Visayas

By Paul Anthony A. Isla
Reporter

CONSIDERING the potential recoverable oil reserves it could get from the eastern Visayas basin, explorations company NorAsian Energy Ltd. has committed to drill an exploratory well next year.
           
NorAsian, along with partners TransAsia Oil and Energy Development Corp., Alcorn Gold Resources, PetroEnergy Resources and Vital Resources Corp. of Canada, plans to drill a well next year.
           
Service Contract 51 covers east Visayan basin with a total acreage for oil and gas exploration in 444,000 hectares of area in the east Visayas region and consists of an onshore-offshore block over northwest Leyte and a largely deepwater block in Cebu Strait, between the islands of Cebu and Bohol.
           
NorAsian explorations manager Dennis V. Panganiban said his company has just concluded its first sub-phase study.
           
“We hope to complete the Villaba-1 study prior to our commitment to enter into the next subphase, which will help determine the deliverability of gas from the Villaba reef,” Panganiban said.
           
Panganiban said NorAsian will definitely have to drill an exploratory well when it enters into the next subphase, which could cost the company between $6 million and $8 million.
           
NorAsian chairman Rufino B. Bomasang declined to specify when the company will drill the well, saying that it has yet to firm up the schedules. “But it will definitely be sometime next year And we are looking at recovering anywhere from around 5 million to 6 million barrels in terms of the recoverable reserves, but the block itself has 16 million barrels of oil in place,” Bomasang said.