By Myrna M. Velasco Ayala-owned firm ACE Enexor Inc. plans to drill an initial well for oil and gas at its awarded petroleum block in northwest Palawan basin. In the company’s annual stockholders meeting on Monday (April 20), ACE Enexor Chief Operating Officer Raymundo A. Reyes, Jr. indicated that they already committed to the Department of Energy (DOE) – via the submission of a work program – to drill one deep water well. “This exploration phase would allow the consortium to test other prospects in the block that could merit stand-alone or cluster field development,” Reyes explained. The company’s service contract (SC) 55 for the Palawan petroleum block formally entered appraisal period effective April 26 this year. “The consortium will prepare for the DOE’s approval, a definitive work program that shall include the drilling of at least one well no later than April 2022,” Reyes noted. He expounded that the block, which is under corporate vehicle Palawan 55, is currently undertaking “follow-on evaluation of two candidate-targets for drilling,” with him emphasizing that “upon completion of the comparative assessment, the consortium will choose the prospect to be drilled, then commence preparations for drilling immediately.” The energy department previously directed ACE Enexor to submit a work program as a follow-through requirement after the approval of its service contract’s entry into appraisal phase. The work program, according to the Ayala firm, shall include “a firm drilling commitment of at least one well within the first two years of the appraisal period.” The Ayala company indicated its service contract’s advancement into appraisal period was anchored on DOE’s evaluation and review that the block’s previous drilling at Hawkeye well “did encounter a significant volume of movable natural gas and is deemed to be a non-associated gas discovery.” It was in 2015 when Palawan 55 drilled the Hawkeye-1 well up to 9,580 feet (2,920 meters) at a cost of US$23.5 million. “The well revealed natural gas at the crest of the target structure but the estimated volume of the accumulation was deemed by the then operator to be non-commercial on a stand-alone basis,” ACE Enexor has emphasized. Presently, the Ayala company said Palawan 55 is “undertaking quantitative interpretation of over 1,000 square kilometers of recently reprocessed 3D seismic data over the greater Hawkeye area and a large carbonate reef prospect.”