Philippines’ Philex owns 50% of Britain’s Pitkin

Philippines’ Philex Petroleum Corp now owns half of Pitkin Petroleum, a British upstream oil and gas company.

In today’s filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex Petroleum said it acquired 46.4 million shares more in Pitkin for $34.8 million at $0.75 each, increasing its stake to 50.28 percent from 18.46 percent.

The shares are broken down as 10 million for new common shares and 36.4 million as existing shares from stockholders.

The purchase was funded through advances from Philex Mining Corp, which owns 64.79 percent of Philex Petroleum, according to the disclosure signed by the latter’s president and chief operating officer, Carlo Pablo.

The two Philex firms belong to the MVP Group of Companies, whose parent company is the Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co Ltd.

Businessman Manuel V Pangilinan heads the group’s interests in the Philippines.

Registered in the UK, Pitkin has operations in the Philippines, Vietnam, Peru and the US. Its 29.14-percent interest in SC 14C2 offshore Northwest Palawan, in central Philippines, is where the viability of redeveloping the West Linapacan oilfield is now being evaluated.

It also has a 25-percent interest in Vietnam Block 07/03, with drilling of two exploration and appraisal wells due to start from July while its 25-percent interest in Peru Block Z-38 is set to begin towards the end of this year or within the first three months of 2014, depending on rig availability.

Besides Pitkin, Philex Petroleum owns part of another British firm, Forum Energy plc, which holds 70 percent of Service Contract 72 covering the Recto Bank in West Philippine Sea.

Philex Petroleum announced in February a net loss of 1.086 billion pesos (Dh96.53m) for 2010, owing to investment write-offs.

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