Operations at the Galoc oil field in Palawan have been suspended as a result of bad weather, threatening to delay the delivery of oil cargoes for a few days.

In a disclosure to the Australian Stock Exchange, Otto Energy Ltd. said it had been advised by Galoc operator Galoc Production Co. W.L.L. of a downtime after its floating production, storage and offloading vessel was disconnected late Tuesday afternoon.

Galoc Production said the inspection was expected to be completed by the end of the week.

Stopping the operations will cost a delay of four to five days for Galoc’s oil deliveries.

The consortium operating the field has sold 1.3 million oil barrels. Petron Corp. bought Galoc’s first crude oil cargo in October, while succeeding cargoes will be shipped to South Korea and Japan.

Galoc Production said it had yet to compute the cost of productive time lost due to the suspension.

A remote-operated underwater vehicle has been secured and will be mobilized to the Galoc field by end of the week to inspect, if weather permits, the vessel’s mooring and riser system for any potential damage.

Oil from Galoc is called Palawan Light, considered a light-medium crude similar to Arabian Light from Saudi Arabia and Umm Shaif from Abu Dhabi.

Crude oil from Galoc is expected to generate foreign exchange savings for the country worth over a billion dollars during its lifetime.

The Galoc field started commercial production on October 9 and was producing 15,000 to 20,000 barrels daily. The figure is equivalent to about 6 percent of the country’s total daily demand of 300,000 barrels.

In an earlier disclosure, Otto Energy said the delays in first oil from the oil field, combined with the recent fall in world oil prices, have resulted in significantly less revenues than originally targeted. As a result, Galoc Production had failed to pay debts.

Otto Energy holds an 18.3 percent indirect interest in the Galoc field, while fellow Australian Nido Petroleum Ltd. owns 22.28 percent. The remaining interest is owned by Filipino oil explorers.

Otto Energy owns 31 percent of Galoc Production Co., the operator of the project. The rest belongs to Vitol GPC Investments SA. Ava Kashima K. Austria