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Soco to spend more on Congo, Vietnam drilling
Soco International Plc, a UK explorer operating in Asia and Africa, may increase capital spending by more than 30 percent next year as it ramps up a drilling campaign in Vietnam and Congo.
The company will spend as much as US$120 million in 2010, Chief Executive Officer Ed Story said Wednesday by telephone. That compares with $90 million this year, with the majority funding wells in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo.
“We’re beginning the drilling campaign in Africa; the first of two wells is going to spud next week,” Story said, adding that Soco is targeting 600 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves in Africa and Vietnam over the next 18 months. “It’s an opportunity to substantially grow the company in terms of reserve value.”
Producers including Tullow Oil Plc, Heritage Oil Ltd. and Soco are seeking exploration licenses and drilling wells in western and central Africa after discoveries in Uganda stoked interest in the region. Soco is exploring sites in Angola, the Republic of Congo and the DRC, formerly known as Zaire. Exploration in the DRC “could dramatically change that country,” Story said.
Soco reported first-half profit from continuing operations of $31.6 million, compared with a loss of $730,000 a year earlier. Earnings were helped by production in Vietnam and Thailand, the London-based company said in a statement. Sales were $66.6 million.
The explorer will accelerate its drilling program in the Te Giac Trang field in Vietnam and aims to begin pumping oil by mid-2011, Soco said. Average first-half production was 6,734 barrels of oil a day, according to the statement.
thanhnien, Bloomberg
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