Written by Madelaine B. Miraflor Reporter Published on 15 November 2012
Amid the growing investor demand, the Department of Energy (DOE) is hoping to conduct the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 4 (PECR4) by year end, which will allow investors to acquire 15 exploration, developments, and oil production and gas sites contracts that the agency will offer.
“Hopefully, we’d be able to bring it out next month, because we were able to finish the evaluation already but of course it undergoes continuous review, hindi naman isang beses lang yan eh [the review is not only done once] once, twice, and then we’ll go back. We have to be very careful in this,” DOE Undersecretary Ramon Allan Oca told reporters at the sidelines of 2012 Upstream Energy International Exhibition and Conference on Wednesday.
He also said that they are almost at the peak of the review, although there were instances where a question or comment would come up, and then they would have to tackle the matter again.
“We want to make sure that when we award these things it’s given to the really most qualified and that we want to ensure that the process is something fair,” Oca said.
“We want to be fair and square just like what the [Aquino] admin said: A level playing field,” he added.
The DOE is also hoping that the contracts that will be offered are for both coal and petroleum. Oca also told reporters that they could see PECR4 boosting the underexplored petroleum industry in the Philippines.
“Hopefully it’s a start of development because as we know, the Philippines is underexplored so this is a step toward that,” he said.
Under the PECR 4, the energy agency will offer 15 contracts for the exploration, development and production of prospective oil and gas sites, in 7.92 million hectares of land in onshore and offshore Cagayan, Central Luzon, Northwest Palawan, Mindoro-Cuyo basin, East Palawan and Cotabato.
On Malampaya Oil Inc., Oca said that there is no timeline for that yet.
“We are always trying to take a look on how we can develop that but we have to ensure the safety of the gas operations because it stands in the middle of the gas operations, so safety considerations for the gas operations are utmost importance,” he added. source
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