MANILA, Philippines — Upstream oil and gas firm PXP Energy Corp. said drilling in its Peru oil prospect is moving on schedule.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PXP Energy said the Marina 1 exploration well in Block Z38 Tumbes Basin offshore Peru has been drilled down to a depth of 1654 meter measured depth (MD), according to a report by its partner Karoon Gas Australia Ltd.
“The 13 3/8 inch casing has been run with the forward plan to drill the primary targets of the Tumbes and Cardalitos formations where multiple target levels have been identified over a 1400m interval,” PXP Energy said
It added that the shallower sections of La Cruz and Mal Pelo formations were encountered down to 1654m MD and preliminary logging results indicate that the well encountered water bearing sands and some gas shows in thin beds which are not considered to be commercial.
The company said that information obtained from the shallow sections provides insights into similar in the deeper waters. It added that La Cruz and Mel Pelo results are independent of the deeper primary targets.
“Operationally the well is progressing to plan. It is on time and on budget, with no safety or environmental incidents,” PXP Energy said.
The total drilling operation is estimated to take 30 days and shall drill to approximately 2994m TVDSS.
Last November, Karoon signed binding agreements with Stena Drilling Ltd. and Tullow Oil Ltd. to contract the Stena Forth Drillship to drill one well to be called the Marina-1 exploration well in Block Z-38 within the first quarter of 2020.
The Marina-1 well sits in water depth of 350 meters and is targeting a gross prospective resource of 256 million barrels.
Block Z-38 sits in the heart of the Tumbes Basin, adjacent to the prolific oil producing Talara Basin which has produced 1.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) since 1880.
Karoon Gas Australia owns 40 percent of Block Z-38 through KEI (Peru Z38) Pty Ltd. Sucursal del Peru, UK-listed oil explorer Tullow Oil with a 35 percent interest, and Pitkin Petroleum Peru Z-38 SRL with 25 percent.
Pitkin Petroleum Peru Z-38 SRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pitkin Petroleum, which, in turn, is a 53.43 percent-owned subsidiary of PXP Energy.
PXP is an upstream oil and gas company incorporated in the Philippines whose shares are listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The company directly and indirectly owns oil and gas exploration and production assets located in the Philippines, and indirectly owns an exploration asset located in offshore Peru.