In August, Nido took 100% equity and operatorship in a new service contract, SC-54, in the Palawan Basin, adjoining its existing SC-14 license and on trend with Shell's 600 million boe Malampaya producing gas field.

"SC-54 is huge," Whitby said.

"It covers 537,616 hectares and quadruples our Palawan Basin acreage.

The basin's Pagasa turbidite reservoirs are analogous to the large oilfields discovered by Hardman and Woodside in offshore Mauritania in recent years, Whitby said.

"Nido's been in the Philippines since 1995 and we've developed a strong database with plenty of good seismic and well and field data," he said.

"We know the basin well - it is a proven petroleum basin with rich source rock and is underexplored, so we think SC-54 has a lot of upside potential."

Too much potential for a company like Nido to develop on its own, but Whitby said he was confident the Perth-based junior would soon find one or two good farmin partners.

Nido has made a firm commitment to six months and US$220,000 including geological and geophysical evaluation, after which it can choose to commit to drilling one well during the following 12 months.

The company said it had already identified more than 30 opportunities in SC-54.

The most tempting of these is Coron North, a large structure in the northof SC-54 with estimated unrisked reserves of 75 to 100 million barrels of oil.

Coron North lies on the same trend as the giant Malampaya gas/condensate/oil field, which contains proven reserves of 2.6 trillion cubic feet of gas and an estimated 50 million barrels of recoverable

The prospect had been prepared for drilling last year before Nido had been forced to relinquish the area when it was unable to find farmin partners.

Nido's six-month SC-54 work program will focus on finalising an in-depth technical and commercial evaluation of Coron North in order to attract a major oil industry farm-in partner, Whitby said.

Meanwhile in neighbouring SC-14, Nido and its partners were moving quickly to get the Galoc oil field ready for first production by early 2007.

Industry estimates suggest Galoc contains at least 20 million and possibly up to 50 million barrels of oil. Nido has a 22.279% stake in the field.

Nido said it had come up with the quickest and most effective development plan to get drilling started in 2006 and have the oil flowing by early 2007.

The plan involves low capital costs and uses proven technology, including a leased floating production and offtake (FPO) facility capable of holding 25,000 barrels of oil per day and with a 50 million-cubic-feet-per-day processing capacity.

The first phase involves two deviated subsea wells with an initial potential production rate of up to 20,000 barrels of oil per day, said Nido. A tethered tanker will provide oil storage, while the joint venture's new Dutch partner Vitol will transport and market the crude oil.

Nido estimates field production from the two wells will rise to 30,000 barrels per day following reservoir stimulation. It expects to recover 5.5 million barrels of oil and US$214 million in pre-tax cash flow in the first year.

Following Galoc, Nido plans to redevelop other shut-in oil fields in the permit, including the West Linapacan A, Libro and Tara prospects.

West Linapacan A’s three production wells, with four sidetracks, produced about 8.4 million barrels of oil from 1992 to 1995, after which time it became shut-in due to a high water cut. Nido said the flow rates were probably too high, but believed the field still had “huge” potential if produced the right way.

Nido will also develop the neighbouring West Linapacan B field, in which a discovery well was drilled in 1993. The company said potential existed for several leads within a tie-in distance from the two fields.

Other undeveloped resources Nido will look at include Bonita, in which it has a 7.812% interest and produced 2000 bopd on test, and Nido 1X1 discovered in 1979 with the company holding a 22.279% stake.

Nido's other interests include several UK North Sea leases, some of which were acquired last year, while others were picked up the recently concluded 23rd licensing round, and a stake in Cool Energy, a gas sweetening technology aimed at reducing carbon dioxide levels in gas.

Between May and August 2005, Nido recorded a $58 million jump in its market capitalisation, seeing its ASX share price rise from seven cents to over 14 cents.

Nido closed at 13.5 cents yesterday.