Sunset Pacific eyes oil exploration in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Sunset Pacific Petroleum Ltd., an oil prospecting firm with joint ventures in Tunisia and Oman, is eyeing a stake in one of the service contracts in the Philippines.

In a statement, Sunset Pacific said “it intends to explore and develop prospective oil and gas fields that will provide it with the economic platform to pursue unconventional formations that have significant upside potentials.”

The company is expected to make known its intentions when its officials meet with Philippine government agencies next month as the oil drilling season resumes, especially in the Malampaya oil field and other areas with prospects for oil and gas reserves.                   

Sunset, formed in 1981, has ramped up its oil and gas exploration activities by forging joint ventures with Tunisian companies IMI-EAG and Cotif Sicar, Hoqool Petroleum Int’l WLL Co. of Bahrain, and acquiring a oil and gas concession in Oman.

The company has been earning from Bougie Trutch and Trutch East fields even as it targets new oil and gas deposits in the Middle East, particularly Oman, Tunisia in North Africa and soon, in Asia.

The company has been working on the Ben Khedechef, previously known as El Hamra, a 3,972-square kilometer onshore concession in Tunisia that geologists and petroleum experts believe could harbor one billion barrels of oil.