ONE of the pioneers and most active oil exploration companies in the country, Philippine Overseas Drilling and Oil Development Corp. (Philodrill), received today from the Department of Energy the approval of GPC 2’s withdrawal from Service Contract (SC) 14C1 consortium.

Galoc Production Co. forfeited its participating interest in the block in favor of NPG Pty Ltd., formerly Nido Production Galoc Co., when it failed to remedy its default in the cash call issued to the joint venture partners (JVP) in November 2020.

As provided in the joint operating agreement, the non-defaulting JVP were given the option to take on their pro-rata portion of the GPC’s defaulted equity. The rest of the JVP except for NPG declined to take on their pro-rata portion of the GPC-forfeited participating interest.

To recall, Galoc Field — an oilproducing field located in deepwater in the Philippines — is operated by Nido Production, maintaining reliable supply with 99-percent uptime throughout 2021.

Its average daily production rate in 2021 was at 1,727 bopd (barrels of oil per day) resulting in a year-end total of 629,964 barrels (bbls). A total of 632,056 bbls were delivered for refining.

Philodrill’s participating interest for SC 14C1 increased to 10.17782 percent from 7.21495 percent as a result of the withdrawal of Galoc Production Co.