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Properties and Project Overview
PETROLEUM
SUMMARY of PARTICIPATING INTERESTS
as of September 30, 2001
GSEC / SC
Project / Block / Well
Location
% PI


Operator:
APPI
Blk "C"
Galoc
West Linapacan

NW Palawan
1.531%
6.123%

Blk "D"
NW Palawan
5.835%
Blk "B-1" (N. Matinloc)
NW Palawan
13.551%
Octon
NW Palawan
1.62%
Bonita
NW Palawan
7.31%
East Visayan Sea Basin
NW Leyte
46.60%
Etame Marin Permit
Gabon, W. Africa
2.625%
Leyte Cement Project
NW Leyte Island
100%
Anoling Gold Project
Agusan del Sur
3.0%

Service Contract 14  - Offshore Northwest Palawan

West Linapacan:
Located off shore NW Palawan
Discovered in 1990
Operator: Alcorn Production Philippines Inc.
Estimated proven reserves: 109 million barrels of oil
Development in 1991: 3 wells completed
Production started in May 1992 at 1700 BOPD
Production decline started December 1992
From March 1993 to 1995, 3 sidetrack wells were drilled to increase production but water intrusion remained a problem  
Production suspended in January 5, 1996 after producing 8.3 million barrels of oil
SOCDET signed farm-in agreement in 1996 to conduct 3-D seismic and drill 1 well to earn 60% participating interest
SOCDET completed 3-D seismic in 1999
For production to recover, water intrusion must be addressed.
Simultaneous development of other reservoirs close by can bring down cost

Galoc:

Located off shore NNW Palawan, 27 kms north of NE of West Linapacan
Discovered in 1981 by Philippine Cities Service, Inc.
First ever discovery of oil in clastics or sandstones in the Philippines
Operator: Alcorn Production Philippines Inc.
Estimated reserves: 50 million barrels of oil
Conducted EPT for 131 days in 1987 and produced 383,460 barrels through a horizontal well
EPT noted the instability of the Galoc sands. Development plans will have to consider the instability of the Galoc sands.
Proposal is to have a unified development of the Galoc and Octon reservoirs.

North Matinloc:

SSW of West Linapacan, SSE of Camago-Malampaya
Operator: Alcorn Production Philippines Inc.
Participating interest: 5.0%
Discovered in May 1988
Estimated proven reserves: +/- 2.5 million barrels of oil.
Production started July 1988. Total oil production amounted to 2,063,963 barrels
Production suspended in November 1991.
Well stimulation revived limited cyclic production at the beginning of 1998 which again stopped in April 2001 after producing 95,423 barrels of oil.


Service Contract 6A  - Offshore Northwest Palawan

Discovered in 1990
Located NNW offshore Palawan near Galoc Field
Operator: Philodrill
AGRC has 1.5% participating interest
Total recoverable reserves: 18 million barrels of oil
Number of wells drilled : 4 (Octon 1-3; Esperanza 1)
Production stage was not attained
Entered the multi-client 3D agreement with SOCDET in 1996
3D seismic completed in 1997, data interpretation completed in 1998


Service Contract 6B  - Offshore Northwest Palawan

Area: 53, 293 hectares
Location: Offshore NW Palawan adjacent to Matinloc/production complexes
Estimated oil in place is around 1.0-1.2 million barrels of oil
Commercial oil was discovered but Bonita-1  flowed at combined rates of only 2,102 BOPD
Actual development deferred.


Geophysical Survey And Exploration Contract 93  - East Visayan Basin

DOE awarded GSEC 93 to an all Filipino consortium in February 1998
AGRC with 46.60% participating interest is the administrative operator
Trans-Asia with 33.34% is the technical operator
AGRC, PetroEnergy and Trans-Asia composed the consortium
Probable oil reserves: 30M barrels to a high of 80M barrels of oil.

The contract area is located in the central part of the Philippine Archipelago, bounded by the islands of Cebu, Leyte and Bohol. It covers 14,000 square kilometers, making it the biggest contract area in the Philippines. It also has the most number of hydrocarbon seeps and shows in the entire country .  

The GSEC 93 consortium lead by Alcorn Gold focused its exploration thrust on the onshore part of the concession area. Oil has been detected on the rock samples collected from the contract area while an old asphalt mine exists in the nearby town of Villaba. Previous wells drilled in the area detected the presence of gas and oil of sub-economic quantity, presumably because they have not been ideally located.

Previously completed work programs delineated several drillable targets. The San Isidro prospect was selected because it has the best-defined onshore structure based on integrated seismic, aeromagnetic and gravity data. It was decided that drilling a slim stratigraphic hole would be the best option to test the presence of gas and/or oil in the San Isidro structure.

Over a span of eighteen months from May 2000, two core-drilling outfits were contracted to attempt and penetrate the San Isidro structure. Both attempts were unsuccessful to reach the target depth of 1,030 meters, and their best efforts were hampered either by financial  or technical deficiencies. Swelling clays and over-pressured aquifers prevented  both attempts from drilling beyond 305 meters.

These technical deficiencies on the part of the drilling contractors caused undue project delays. The consortium is now reviewing its options on how to complete the project.

Gabon, West Africa 

The Company has sold out its residual participating interest of 2.625% to Nissho Iwai of Japan for 1.5 million US$. For further updates on Gabon Etame block please click this link: http://www.vaalco.com


MINERALS


Mineral Production Sharing Agreement APSA 000015-VIII 
Leyte Cement Project: Isabel- Merida, Leyte

The MPSA was granted in favor of Alcorn Gold last June 1997. The project covers 3,564 hectares in the municipalities of Merida and Isabel in the province of Leyte.  A series of follow up raw material surveys were completed and has defined the boundaries of the raw material component within the quarry site selected. The company has determined the reserves-in-place amounting to 165 million Mt of high lime and 1.60 billion Mt of low lime materials.

Engineering studies have been initiated but further implementation of development plans was sidetracked by political upheavals that wreaked havoc on the country's economy. The downward turn forced foreign company to hesitate and  postpone all joint venture negotiations. Despite the present market atmosphere, the company believes it can farm out part of the interest in the project and has filed an application for a two-year extension of the exploration period under the MPSA system.


Mineral Production Sharing Agreement Application 
Agusan Gold Project: Rosario, Agusan del Sur

The project area is situated approximately  880, 136 and 85 aerial kms from the cities of Manila, Davao and Butuan respectively. It is located within 8 kms of  Banahao Gold Mine to the south and it  can be reached from the main highway via 3.5-km logging road from Barangay Anoling in  Rosario, Agusan del Sur.

The claim area covers an area of 405 hectares and is favorably situated within the “East Mindanao Gold Belt", where epithermal vein system has  continuously been mined for gold on a small-scale basis since World War II. Numerous quartz veins zones and alteration halos have been mapped and sampled in the claim area to determine the preliminary resources in place. Limited underground mining has proven the existence of high grade bonanza zones along known auriferous structures. Past exploration programs have determined an inferred geologic resource of 11 million metric tons of ore with a grade of 0.86- 1.86 grams gold per ton, which is the subject of confirmation by diamond core-drilling.

The MPSA application for the 5 mining claims was forwarded to DENR Region XIII (Caraga) office in Surigao City last September 1997 for processing. Approval of the MPSA was delayed by an adverse claim filed by a logging company, PICOP. The case currently awaits the decision of the Panel of Arbitrators at the DENR-MGB Regional Office in Surigao City.