Australia’s Frontier Gasfields to Acquire Stake in Philippines Oil, Gas block

Australia’s Frontier Gasfields has signed a deal with three Philippine petroleum contractors for the development of an oil and gas block in the Visayas basins, InterAksyon.com said in a report.

The three – Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp, Alcorn Gold Resources Corp and PetroEnergy Resources Corp – gave Frontier Oil Corp the option to acquire up to 80 percent of the south block of Service Contract 51. 'Frontier may exercise this option no later than [December 15, 2012],' the three companies said.

Trans-Asia, Alcorn and PERC have a minimal stake in the south block of SC 51, but have the option to sign up a new partner after another Australian company, Otto Energy, decided to pull out of the project, InterAksyon.com said.

In exchange for the shares that will be assigned to it, Frontier Oil will drill, at its own cost and risk, the Argao-1 exploratory well in the Cebu Strait. Seismic data earlier acquired by the joint venture on the Argao Prospect indicated potential 'unrisked' resources of up to 93 million barrels of oil.

Under an agreement with the government, the SC 51 consortium should drill the said well between January 31, 2014 and July 8, 2015.