By Lenie Lectura - August 30,
2017
THE energy department is eyeing to
hold public consultations to meet its December target of conducting another oil
and gas licensing round via competitive selection process (CSP).
“We may start it in December,”
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said. The agency, he added, must conduct
public hearings first. “Part of government procedure is to have it bid out
always,” he said. “Public hearings are part of the process and we will conduct
one soon.”
The government, Cusi added, is
veering away from the traditional Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR),
in which the Department of Energy identifies possible petroleum exploration
sites. The current system is meant to lure local and foreign oil-exploration
firms to submit bids to the agency, which will then evaluate the offers of
these companies for at least 100 days. After which, the service contracts will
be signed, approved and awarded by Malacañang.
The DOE wants to improve the current
system, in a bid to fast-track the entire process.
Cusi said the agency would no longer
identify the potential sites fit for petroleum exploration. Instead,
prospective investors are the ones who will identify the potential sites that
interest them. Thereafter, they should submit a detailed exploration
offer to the DOE, and wait for their proposal to undergo a CSP.
“This will facilitate exploration
process because work will be divided,” Cusi added, saying that the offer would
be published in order to promote transparency.
The DOE launched in May 2014 the
fifth PECR for petroleum.
A petroleum service contract has a
seven-year exploration period, which could be extended to up to 10 years.
Should this phase succeed, the contract will enter into a 25-year development
or production period.
“The difference is that you would
have to wait for the DOE for announcement that we are going to open this area
for exploration for contracting. This takes long. Now, interested private
companies will be the ones to identify and tell us which areas they want to
explore. A CSP will take place. Overall, the entire process would be much
faster,” Cusi stressed.
The exploration arm of the
Philippine National Oil Co., Cusi said, can also participate in the new scheme.
No comments:
Post a Comment