PRODUCTION capacity of the onshore Alegria oil field in Cebu is not enough to supply fuel on a regional and national level, a Department of Energy (DoE) official said on Tuesday.
“Although [its production capacity] is significant from a local perspective, it’s not enough to supply at a regional or even more so, the national level,” DoE Assistant Secretary Leonido J. Pulido III told Senator Risa N. Hontiveros-Baraquel during a Senate hearing on the Midstream Natural Gas Industry Act. He did not give exact figures on the oil field’s current production capacity.
In 2016, the DoE and the oil field’s service contractor China International Mining Petroleum Co. Ltd. (CIMP) said that the 197,000-hectare area in Southern Cebu had commercial quantities of natural gas.
Mr. Pulido made the statement in response to Ms. Hontiveros-Baraquel’s question on the Alegria oil field’s status of production.
Although the oil field was “ramping up,” it had experienced some delays, said Mr. Pulido. He did not explain the cause of the setbacks.
Last year, Hong Kong-based Polyard Petroleum International Group Ltd.’s unit CIMP signed a drilling service agreement with oil services firm East Asia Oil Engineering Group Ltd. The deal, which was inked on Jan. 11, remained valid until Dec. 31 last year.
Under the deal, East Asia Oil was tasked to provide turnkey services to help CIMP drill six production wells in the Alegria oil field. The services included supplying a full set of drilling equipment, materials and personnel in well drilling, mud logging, wire line logging, cementing, testing and other related services.
CIMP, which held Petroleum Service Contract No. 49 covering the Alegria oil field, began exploration and drilling activities in the area in 2009.
Three years ago, DoE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said that the Southern Cebu oil field could produce enough natural gas to supply the requirements of a small power plant with a capacity of 60 megawatts.
He added that the two oil wells in the field could produce 180 barrels of crude oil each.
The US Energy Information Administration described the Alegria oil field as one of the two active petroleum fields in the Philippines, with the other being the Galoc offshore field in the northwest Palawan basin. — Angelica Y. Yang
