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Philex unit to drill 2nd well in Vietnam

10/16/2009

Philex Mining Corp. reported that its unit Pitkin Petroleum Plc. is drilling a second well in its oil and gas discovery in Vietnam and starting the seismic survey for its Service contract 53 in Mindoro Island, Palawan.

In a report to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said that, following the oil and gas discovery announced in June 2009 on Vietnam Block 07/03, Pitkin has completed a 3D seismic survey to define the resource potential of the discovery and that of adjacent structures.

Pitkin said the program recorded a total of 1,100 square kilometers of data and the provisionally processed dataset has been interpreted ahead of site selection for the second exploration well.

The discovery well tested a combined 3,265 barrels of oil per day plus 8.1 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from two zones in multiple stacked reservoir sands. The second commitment well is planned for November 2009.

Block 07/03 covers an area of 4,915 square kilometers and lies between the Nam Con Son Basin hydrocarbon fields to the north and the East Natuna Basin discoveries to the south.

Pitkin, via its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vietnam American Exploration Company, LLC (Vamex), has a participating interest of 40 percent in the block, with the balance held by Premier Oil (operator, 30 percent), PearlOil (15 percent) and Pan Pacific Petroleumi (15 percent).

In the Philippines, Pitkin has awarded an onshore 2D seismic survey contract to BGP Inc. of China, which will involve the acquisition of 200 kilometers of seismic data in Philippines Service Contract 53, Mindoro Island, and operations will begin shortly.

SC 53 covers an area of 7,240 square kilometers, mostly onshore and adjacent to the Palawan Basin, which hosts all the producing oil and gas wells in the Philippines. Numerous onshore oil and gas seeps plus two gas discoveries are located in the contract area, and more than 15 prospective structures with individual areas of closure of between 7 and 65 square kilometres have been identified from previous work.

Pitkin has a participating interest of 70 percent in the block, with the remaining 30 percent held by The Philodrill Corp., Basic Consolidated, Inc. and Anglo Philippine Holdings Corp.

Pitkin operates three Service Contracts in the Philippines. These comprise a total area of approximately 20,000 square kilometers, both onshore and offshore.