By Lenie Lectura - December 14, 2018
ENERGY Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi
said on Thursday that his office has initiated moves meant to jump-start
discussions between the Philippines and China on a possible joint oil and gas
exploration.
“The MOU [memorandum of
understanding] is meant to explore a solution. So, I sent a notice through the
DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] saying I am ready and want to meet with
them immediately,” said Cusi.
Even if the Philippines and
China have one year to discuss the recently signed MoU before both
countries arrive at any firm agreement on a possible joint exploration, Cusi
said he would not wait for his attention to be called. “There’s an MOU.
In the spirit of the MOU, I want to immediately discuss it. I am not passive,”
he added.
Manila and Beijing, through their
representatives—Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. and his
counterpart Wang Yi—signed the MOU in the presence of President Duterte and
President Xi Jinping during the latter’s visit to the Philippines last month.
To critics who raised fears the MOU
may further embolden China’s maritime expansion, Locsin— who said the MOU was
Philippine-crafted—has explained that it did not yield an iota of sovereignty
to China and was simply an agreement to agree. Two critics of China’s
expansionary moves in the South China Sea, Supreme Court Senior Associate
Justice Antonio Carpio and Locsin’s predecessor Alberto del Rosario, had
described the MOU as a good starting point for engaging Beijing.
Meanwhile, Energy Assistant
Secretary Gerardo D. Erquiza Jr. said separately that a meeting with the DFA
was supposed to happen this month, but conflicting schedules prompted both
agencies to reschedule it.
“We are gathering details. It’s a
step-by-step framework on how we are going to move forward to be able to have a
fruitful activity with China. We have a technical working group among us, and
we have already said that, anytime, we can start and go,” said Erquiza.
Moratorium
HE also said that the eventual
lifting of the moratorium of exploration activities under Service Contract (SC)
72, an oil-and-gas-exploration permit covering the Sampaguita natural-gas
prospect in the Reed Bank, to the west of Palawan, would be part of the future
discussions.
Discussions between the PXP Energy
Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. for a possible joint
exploration of SC 72 had been put on hold because of the dispute between
the two countries on the area where the service contract is.
The Philippine government had
declared force majeure on the license in 2015 due to a territorial dispute with
China then. That time, the case filed by Manila against Beijing’s “excessive”
nine-dash-line claim was being heard in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in
The Hague. The following year, the PCA ruled in Manila’s favor, but China has
refused to recognize the judgment.
Cusi said the DOE and the
DFA are closely working on the lifting of moratorium on SC 72.
“We want to lift it…but as we do so,
we do not want to create problems that we may not be able to handle. The DOE
and DFA, together with other government agencies, are working together to find
a solution to that problem,” said Cusi.
“We don’t want to impose a timeline
that is not within our control because there are other factors we have to consider.
But what I can tell you, we are working, moving with urgency,” he said, when
asked for a target working schedule for the lifting of the moratorium.
Cusi earlier told PXP Energy that it
needs to make a formal request to the energy department for the lifting of the
moratorium on exploration and drilling works.
PXP Energy holds a 78.98-percent
controlling interest in UK-based Forum Energy Plc., which, in
turn, has a 70-percent stake in SC 72.
No comments:
Post a Comment