Australian firm Nido Petroleum Ltd. has announced plans to drill at least 5 offshore oil wells over the next 18 to 24 months in central Philippines.

In a letter submitted to state regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nido chairman William Block said the drilling program aims to unlock an estimated three billion barrels of oil off Northwest Palawan.

"Your board and management believe firmly in the potential of the basin. We also believe that we have taken a very disciplined and prudent approach to the technical evaluation of our acreage in order to de-risk the portfolio to the extent possible prior to drilling," Bloking said in his letter.

Nido Petroleum has 112 targets within the Northwest Palawan basin, with an estimated potential oil reserves of at least 11.5 billion barrels.

Each targets has prospect sizes ranging from 50 million barrels to over a billion barrels of oil. A number of prospects are offering multiple reservoir objectives, Bloking said.

Nido has five service contracts (SC) within the basin-SC 14C1, which contains the Galoc oil field; SC 54A, which has the Tindalo oil prospect; SC 54B, with the Gindara, Lapu Lapu and Princesa Deep drilling candidates; SC 58, and SC 63, which contains the Aboabo-1 discovery.

"We expect to fund the program via our existing cashflow from Galoc, a successful development at Tindalo and other discoveries. In support of this program, we are issuing tenders to purchase $3.5 million in long lead time items and are in early discussions with rig companies for the first two wells in SC 54B [Gindara] and SC 63 [Aboabo]," Blokin said.