Oil & Gas Exploration
The location at the Sulu Sea Basin
Oil and Gas Industry in Archipelago is a brand-new business for the region. Stable technology-driven partners with vast experience are encouraged in developing these business activities. There are six allocated blocks at the Sulu Sea for Oil and Gas Exploration owned by the Chairman. These six allocated blocks came from the same mother-basin (Sulu Sea Basin) which mainly focus on the Northeastern of the Sulu Sea.
The Sulu Sea basin is one of 14 depocenters in the Philippine Archipelago, a collage of island arcs, continental fragments and tectonostratigraphic terranes of various origins. It is located between the islands of Palawan, Panay, Negros, Western Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago and Sabah on the Northeastern coast of Borneo.
It consists of several Northeast trending sub-basins; the Northwest and Southwest Sulu Basin with three comparatively smaller sub-basins called
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Balabac
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Bancauan
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Sandakan (Northeast shelf of Sabah)
These smaller sub-basins which have been named the Western Sulu Basin has been the site of active exploration for oil and gas.
Approximately more than 40 wells have been drilled in the Sulu Sea Basin. The basin must therefore be considered as only partially explored.
The allocated blocks can be found in these regions accordingly.
Although these basins, particularly the Northwest Palawan Basin are important petroleum-producing areas in the country. They are lightly explored and have been primarily focused on the Oligocene (Miocene) carbonate plays. The existing 25 wells in Pala Sulu was designed to image the pre-Miocene section and deeper targets which includes Paleogene that has been identified as the source of hydrocarbons (Branson, et. al., 1997).
Recent innovations have demonstrated the feasibility and economic viability of operating in these environments. Since the Sulu Sea Basin is affected by the same regional tectonic episodes, it is evident from the Pala Sulu seismic data that the foundations and subsequent sedimentation patterns vary between the various basins in the study area.
The integration of the regional seismic data with age and stratigraphic data wells within the tectonic plate has enabled the identification of the deposition and burial of the source rocks intervals which includes the hydrocarbon traps. Hence, the limited data availability and the quality tectonic and stratigraphic evolution would not be a problem in defining and extending the petroleum prospectivity.
Philippines Sulu Sea & East Palawan Basin
Schlumberger conducted a reprocessing project with MultiClient Geophysical (MCG) for a seismic data from the Philippines Sulu Sea and East Palawan Basin are now available.
Schlumberger claims the data coverage and quality are pertinent for optimizing oil exploration work programs. Identifying, mapping and predicting the source rock at different reservoir and seal of various plays.
With the reprocessed multiclient 2D seismic data from Schlumberger, the Sulu Sea Basin will be easy to discover with the developed technology.
2D data reprocessed in association with MCG.
Photo courtesy of Schlumberger. For more information, click on the image.