Indonesian oil explorer invites Filipino firms for Kalimantan project

MANILA (AFP): Petrocorp Exploration Indonesia Ltd. is inviting Filipino firms to take part in an exploration project in the Karang Besar area off east Kalimantan, an official of one of the local companies said yesterday.

Walter Brown, general-manager of Palawan Oil and Gas Exploration, said his company and about six other Philippine firms are being asked to participate in the new project.

Palawan Oil vice president Gregorio Yu told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday that the company is negotiating for a 30 percent stake in the venture but gave no other details.

Brown said Petrocorp, a subsidiary of Fletcher Challenge Petroleum of New Zealand, is set to get permission this month for the project from Pertamina, the state enterprise with exclusive authority to mine oil and gas in Indonesia.

Palawan Oil, a publicly listed firm, was part of a consortium that drilled the Maratua area in Indonesia early last month, but abandoned the project after discovering that the Tanjung Batu-1 oil well was dry.

Meanwhile, oil explorer Philodrill Corp. reported to the SEC yesterday a 98 percent drop in net income to only 612,000 pesos (US$22,000) during the first quarter of 1994.

Company officials attributed the decline to rising cost of operations in the West Linapacan offshore production site in Palawan province which has been reduced by water seepage.

Philodrill has a four percent stake in a consortium drilling the West Linapacan site.

Total revenues during the first three months of 1994 also tumbled 70 percent to 15.68 million pesos, Philodrill said in papers submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government's corporate watchdog.

Operating costs and expenses totaled 15.07 million pesos, the company said.

Another oil firm Trans-Asia Oil and Mineral Development Corp. reported a 60 percent increase in profits to 12.4 million pesos in 1993, while total revenues climbed 20 percent to 21.2 million pesos during the same period.

No first quarter figures were released.