The company said the second phase of the reserves certification program for the field by Gaffney, Cline and Associates (GCA) extended the previous analyses of Galoc to include 3P (proved, probable and possible) reserves.

GCA found the field had a recovery factor of 21% and possible reserves of 41.9 million standard barrels.

Nido deputy managing director Joanne Williams said the “excellent” result indicated there may be significant added value from a second phase of development of the Galoc field.

Development drilling at the Galoc field is expected to start in June next year, with first oil planned for November 2007.

Galoc is in Block C of Service Contract 14 in the NW Palawan Basin. It is about 55km northeast of Shell’s Malampaya gas field and 70km west of Culion Island in around 290m of water.

Two exploration and appraisal wells were drilled in the Galoc field during the 1980s and produced more than 385,000bbl of oil during an extended production test in 1988.

The first development phase will involve connecting two subsea horizontal wells via a seabed flowline and riser system to a Floating Production, Storage and Offtake facility.

In August, GCA certified the first phase of the development as having 1P (proved) reserves of 9.7 million barrels (MMbbl) and 2P (proved and probable) reserves of 23.5MMbbl.