Tap yesterday said it had entered into a farm-in agreement to acquire a 58% interest, and take over as operator in Service Contract 41 (SC 41), an area of about 5000 square kilometres, with water depths ranging from 200m to 2000m.

Tap will contribute to the costs of the acquisition and interpretation of 300sq.km of 3D seismic and, after completing interpretation of this data, may elect to continue into the next year of the permit term by contributing to the funding of an exploration well.

Tap managing director Paul Underwood said taking a significant interest in, and operatorship of, SC 41 formed part of the company’s strategy to establish a new area of focus in oil and gas-rich areas of Southeast Asia.

“There are numerous large oil and gas fields in this area and the fiscal regime in the Republic of Philippines is relatively attractive,” Underwood said.

Tap's reserves base is declining and the company is keen to make some big discoveries.

Underwood said the prospectivity of SC 41 comprised a number of play types that were interpreted to have the potential for oil accumulations in the range of 50-150 million barrels.

“Tap’s initial interest is focused on a trend of large scale, four-way dip closures already mapped on existing 2D seismic, some with direct hydrocarbon indicators," he said.

“In 2000, the Wildebeest-1 exploration well discovered oil and gas in this block. This discovery, identified only on 2D seismic data, demonstrates the existence of a hydrocarbon system and may present an appraisal opportunity in the future.”

He said Tap proposed to acquire the 3D seismic data later this year with a view to identify drillable prospects by mid-2007.

The new participants in SC 41 will be operator Tap Oil (58.269%), Forum Energy Philippines (26.731%), Southwest Resources (0.608%), Philodrill (3.398%), Philex Mining (2.264%), Oriental Petroleum & Minerals (5.463%), Universal Robina (0.498%), South China Resources (1.090%), and Anglo Philippine Holding (1.679%).