State-run Philippine National Oil Company- Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) has indicated to Congress that it is preparing for the drilling of two new wells at the Malampaya gas field in 2025.

PNOC-EC Manager for Planning and Budget Department Alexis Dela Torre stated that the consortium-members at Malampaya “are undergoing reserve replacement activities; and we are scheduled to drill minimum of two wells in 2025 to extend the production life of the service contract.”

The company has not presented concrete figure yet on the capital outlay for the targeted well drilling in 2025, but it noted that the company’s allocation for next year would be P2.09 billion for continuing business operations at Malampaya.

The PNOC-EC official qualified that their target from the commercial gas field next year would be gas sales hovering at 58.1 billion cubic feet (BCF), and then 1.75 million barrels of condensate.

In May this year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has extended Malampaya’s service contract 38 (SC 38) for 15 years, hence, the consortium could still be given another lease to stretch Malampaya’s gas production life cycle until year 2039.

The service contract extension was granted after the takeover of Prime Energy of the Razon group as the gas field operator, that was following the merger and acquisition (M&A) deal that was firmed up in November last year on account of the 45-percent operatorship shareholdings divested by the local subsidiary of multinational energy giant Royal Dutch Shell.

On the targeted drilling of new wells at Malampaya, energy officials previously announced that based on the work program submitted by the SC 38 consortium, the capital outlay may reach as high as $630 million – primarily if the exploration activity would be expanded to cover up to three wells.

Also integrated in the budget, according to the DOE, would be over $300 million that shall be funneled for the installation of tieback and subsea facilities.

It remains a major puzzle if there would still be additional gas of commercial scale that can be extracted from the field beyond February 2024, which is the reckoning date of the first 25-year cycle of Malampaya’s exploration and production (E&P) service contract.

So far, the new consortium-members as well as the government are hopeful of additional gas discovery that could help shore up the country’s energy independence agenda.

Previous pronouncements from the energy department portend of potential "commercial gas find" within Malampaya’s near-fields, primarily at Malampaya East, Iloc and Linapacan prospects.

Initial data exhibited probable gas yield that may reach 1.0 trillion cubic feet (TCF), but that has to be confirmed by extended seismic surveys and the scheduled well drilling to be carried in the next two years.