Philex Petroleum narrows loss in Q1

MANILA, Philippines – Philex Petroleum Corp., the upstream oil and gas unit of listed mining firm Philex Mining Corp., trimmed its net loss by 42.1 percent in the first quarter to P11.8 million.

The lower net loss was attributed to cost reduction efforts by the company.

The company holds a 60.49-percent interest in Forum Energy, which has a 70 percent interest in Service Contract (SC) 72 west Palawan and a 2.27 percent interest in the SC 14 Block C-1 Galoc offshore northwest Palawan.

Philex Petroleum chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the company expected this trend to continue because the firm’s oil and gas prospects are still under exploration.

Apart from this, Philex Petroleum has several projects under force majeure, namely SC 72 Reed Bank offshore west Palawan and SC 75 in offshore Northwest Palawan Basin as these projects are located in the disputed West Philippine Sea.

The company has a 50 percent interest in SC 75. Other stakeholders include state-owned Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. with 35 percent and PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC) with 15 percent.

Moving forward, Philex Petroleum said it would “continue with its prudent control of operating expenditures and evaluation of its asset portfolio whilst remaining active in exploration activities, in line with the current low oil-price environment.”