Print this pageAbstract: Reef Exploration in Philippines
Until recently the Philippines was the missing nexus in the southeast Asian chain of oil-producing countries. In March 1976, the Philippine Petroleum Board (now the Department of Energy) announced that significant amounts of oil flowed from the Nido 1 well of Philippines-Cities Service, Inc., and Husky Oil (Philippines) Inc., in their production-sharing contract area in offshore northwest Palawan. In 1977, two more discovery wells were drilled by Amoco Philippines Petroleum Co. and Philippines-Cities Service, Inc.
The flow rates measured during the testing of these wells range from 1,400 to 7,250 bbl/day and well logs measured reservoir porosities up to 37% with extensive secondary porosity in the form of fractures and vugs. Vertical closures of the reef traps are from 600 to more than 1,000 ft (180 to 300 m) in reefal buildups in excess of 2,000 ft (600 m).
Prior to these finds many explorationists had "written off" the Philippines as a potential oil producer, because the 300 wells drilled in almost 80 years of exploration were either dry or noncommercial. With the discovery of the oil-bearing reefs, it is apparent that the exploration approach, not the geologic potential, was wanting.
Oil exploration in the Philippines thus has been given a definite direction. Consequently, other Philippine sedimentary basins now are being reevaluated. Ongoing geologic and geophysical work shows that the source, seal, and porous reservoir-rock conditions present in the Nido reef complex also may be repeated in other basins.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90962©1978 AAPG 2nd Circum-Pacific Energy and Minerals Resource Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii