By Lenie Lectura- September 6, 2019
THE Department of Energy (DOE) has
set an October 28 deadline for the submission of applications to find petroleum
reserves in the East Palawan Basin.
One applicant has so far
nominated East Palawan Basin as its preferred location to conduct exploration
activities in search for commercially viable deposits of oil and or gas.
The DOE withheld the identity
of the applicant pending the opening of other bid offers from expected
challengers set on October 28.
“Deadline for the submission
of documents by counter proponents—60 days from date of publication by the
nominating party. The nominating party published the existence of their
application on August 28,” said the DOE in a notice.
Challengers must submit their
application documents at the DOE records management division and pay the
corresponding application fee of P1 million on or before October 28.
“Opening of the documents will
be held at the DOE-Audio Visual Room on the same day of submission deadline,
October 28,” added the agency.
East Palawan Basin is referred to as
“Nominated Area [NA] 4.”
The DOE earlier received
nominations for prospective areas inSoutheast Luzon Basin (NA 3) from Superior
Shipywards, Inc.;Northwest Palawan Basin (NA 2) from Troika Giant Power
Corp.; andSulu Sea Basin (NA 1) from Sulu Sea Energy Resources Development
Corp.
The agency also offered
14 “pre-determined areas” but only received offers to explore four
areas. There were no offers for the remaining 10 PDAs.
Ratio Petroleum Ltd. submitted an
offer for Area 3 (East Palawan Basin); Sulu Sea Energy Resources Development
Corp. and Esmaulana Global Ventures Company Inc. for Area 6 (Sulu Sea
Basin); Philodrill Corp. and PXP Energy Corp. for Area 7 (Sulu Sea
Basin).
Esmaulana Global Ventures
Company Inc. also submitted a separate proposal for Area 10 (Agusan-Davao
Basin).
The DOE said it will continue to
encourage investors to participate in the Philippine Conventional Energy
Contracting Program (PCECP).
“If you look at the context of
the Philippines, we are currently competing against markets from Africa, we’re
currently competing for investments from the US. In a lot of these
international companies, the tendency really is to shall we say invest in areas
that are very, very stable, where the risk is less,” DOE Assistant Secretary
Leonido Pulido pointed out.
Despite the current situation
involving the contentious areas, the agency said investors remain eager to
explore the area for petroleum resources. “In fact, noteworthy companies,
particularly Shell Philippines Exploration BV and NWP Ventures, both UK-based
companies, have, likewise, nominated blocks for petroleum service contract
applications within the disputed areas. Multiple companies, including Spanish
firm Repsol, have also shown interest in farming in the West Philippine Sea
area,” said the DOE.
Moreover, the agency said
other interested parties are awaiting the government’s policy direction in the
West Philippine Sea and have expressed their desire to explore the area should
the current Moratorium due to Force Majeure be lifted.
“We do have an existing
territorial dispute. In the discussions that we’ve had with different agencies
around the world, we do recognize that the Philippines is not exactly
marketable. So there is difficulty, there is a challenge there and we are
working on that,” said Pulido.
The department had expressed hope
that the contracting round would result in finding another Malampaya, the
offshore Palawan project that fuels five power plants in Batangas province with
a combined capacity of 3,211 megawatts.
That natural gas field is estimated
to be depleted by 2022-2024.
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