Vietnam, Philex unit finds oil, gas flows

Philex Mining Corporation announced that its international oil exploration affiliate Pitkin Petroleum Plc has found encouraging oil and gas flow rates in Block 07/03, offshore Vietnam.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said the block’s operator Premier Oil Vietnam South B.V. said the positive “hydrocarbon flow rates from the Oligocene section in Ca Rong Do, which in addition to the previously proven Miocene reservoirs, provide further exploration upside across the area.”

Premier Oil added that “we look forward to the result of the sidetrack well which will provide additional data to determine the hydrocarbon distribution in this part of the Ca Rong Do (CRD) structure.”

Pitkin said that the CRD-2X appraisal well has been drilled to a total depth (TD) of 3,785 meters MDRT, appraising the Miocene sands discovered in 2009 with the CRD-1X well.

The well was deepened from the preliminary TD of 3,109 meters MDRT to evaluate the Oligocene which was not tested by the CRD-1X well. Thus, two drill stem tests of the hydrocarbon bearing sands in the Oligocene section have been conducted.

The first zone tested flowed gas and condensate at rates of 9.7 MMSCFD (million standard cubic feet per day) and 870 barrels of oil per day, respectively while the second zone tested flowed gas and condensate at rates of 17 MMSCFD and 1730 BOPD, respectively.

Pitkin said the well will now be sidetracked to further evaluate the distribution of hydrocarbons in the Miocene sands.

Philex said Pitkin, via its wholly-owned unit Vietnam American Exploration Company LLC, has a participating interest of 40 percent in Block 07/03.

Its partners are Premier Oil (30 percent), PearlOil (Ophiolite) Ltd (15 percent), Pan Pacific Petroleum (Vietnam) Pty Ltd (5 percent), and PetroVietnam Exploration & Production Corporation Ltd (10 percent).

Pitkin, which is currently 18.46 percent owned by the Philex group through wholly-owned subsidiary Philex Petroleum Corporation, is an international upstream oil and gas company focused on tertiary basins primarily in the Pacific Rim region with operations in Peru, Vietnam, the Philippines, and the USA.

It is involved throughout the exploration and production value chain, with an active exploration program, a redevelopment project and equity interests in small scale production.