DOE: Galoc oil field royalties total P976M as of end-Feb.

Royalties from the Galoc oil field in northwest Palawan has reached nearly P1 billion as of February, a government official said Wednesday. Energy Undersecretary Ramon Oca said Galoc royalties turned over to the Treasury Department has reached P976 million. "Production from the Galoc oil field continues to provide a significant contribution to government's coffers. We hope to find more oil producing fields in the future," Oca said. Government started earning royalties from the field starting June 2009, when the Galoc field was declared commercially viable. The Galoc field is covered by service contract 14C. Production at the Galoc field ended in 2010 with an 84-percent average uptime, from 63.5 percent in 2009. Production at the end of last year totaled 6.27 million barrels of oil. Production averaged 4,813 barrels of oil per day in the last quarter of 2010. The Galoc field has estimated reserves of 10 million barrels. The Galoc consortium in February said it is assessing the viability of going for Phase 2 in developing the field to access additional oil and raise its output. Galoc Production Co. holds 58.29 percent of service contract 14C . Other stakeholders are Nido Petroleum Ltd. (22.28 percent), Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp. and Linapacan Oil Gas & Power Corp. (7.57 percent), Philodrill Corp. (7.03 percent), Forum Energy Corp. (2.27 percent), Alcorn Gold (1.53 percent) and PetroEnergy (1.03 percent). — VS, GMA News