The Israeli firm Ratio Petroleum operating Service Contract (SC) 76 in the East-Palawan Basin is hopeful of finding a local partner in exploring the resource area.
This developed after the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that Ratio Petroleum has identified so-called petroleum plays with over twenty leads delineated within their contract block.
“This area is relatively underexplored but we do think we see similarities to what happened in Israel. The impact over here could be tremendous,” said Itay Raphael, Ratio Petroleum chief executive officer at the Powertrends 2023 International Business Forum in Makati City on Thursday.
According to him, the identification of gas chimneys in the service contract area “is a very encouraging thing” for the business.
A gas chimney is a rising column of natural gas within a water or sediment column and can be an indicator of deposits of resources in an area.
In a separate statement, DOE said Ratio Petroleum completed the first phase of its work program in October last year. Its service contract covers an area of 648,000 hectares with water depths ranging from 80 to 1700 meters.
SC 76 was awarded to Ratio Petroleum in October 2018 via the Philippine Energy Contracting Round, with projected minimum expenditure initially valued at $34.35 million to be used for studies, data gathering and drilling activities over an initial seven-year contract.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said Ratio Petroleum is further analyzing the leads to upgrade them into prospects suitable for well drilling that confirms the presence of oil and gas deposits in the area.
