By
Lenie Lectura - August 20, 2019
THE Department of Energy
on Monday received five bid offers to conduct exploration activities in four of
the 14 predetermined areas offered by the DOE.
During the opening of
the bid offers for nominated areas under the Philippine Conventional Energy
Contracting Program (PCECP), they submitted their proposals to look for oil and
gas.
Ratio Petroleum Limited
submitted an offer for Area 3 (East Palawan Basi), Sulu Sea Energy Resources
Development Corp. and Esmaulana Global Ventures Co. Inc. for
Area 6 (Sulu Sea Basin) and Philodrill Corp. and PXP Energy Corp. for Area 7,
(Sulu Sea Basin).
Esmaulana Global Ventures
Co. Inc. also submitted a separate proposal for Area 10 (Agusan-Davao Basin).
The proposals submitted
by the five firms for the four areas would be further reviewed by the DOE.
“We have 15 working
days to complete evaluation from today. The technical working group will then
forward the results of the review to the CREC [Centralized Review and
Evaluation Committee] and CREC has a corresponding period to give it to
the secretary,” said DOE Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido.
During the bid opening,
some of the bidders submitted incomplete data. Still, the agency accepted the
proposals subject to further review. “The CREC will accept the submissions.
Please expect formal notice from the committee regarding the completeness of
your submission,” Pulido told the bidders, who will receive a notice from the
agency within seven to 10 days.
The DOE, according to
Pulido, is still “happy” with the turnout of the auction.
“Considering the context
of the Philippines, we are currently competing with markets in Africa,
competing for investments from the US. The tendency really is, shall we say,
invest in areas that are really stable where the risk is less. We do have
territorial disputes. In the discussions we had with different agencies around
the world, we do recognize the Philippines is not marketable. There is a
difficulty, challenge there but we are working on them. Considering these,
we’re happy to get a third of the PDAs, we do have nominated areas,” said
Pulido.
Under the PCECP,
investors may engage in upstream exploration or development activities in two
ways: One, choosing an area from the 14 predetermined areas (PDAs) offered by
the DOE.
Two, proposing their
own areas for exploration, which begins by requesting for an Area Clearance.
Pulido said the
remaining 10 PDAs would still be offered to prospective investors.
“We intend to continue
marketing them. We are considering opening up the 10 remaining PDAs, to be
offered to the public as areas the private sector can nominate. We will
essentially transform them into an area subject to nomination,” he said, adding
that a department circular would be crafted to make this happen.
For nominated areas,
the DOE received offers from Sulu Sea Energy Resources Development Corp.,
which nominated Sulu Sea Basin; Troika Giant Power Corp., which nominated
Northwest Palawan Basin; and Superior Shipywards Inc., which nominated
Southeast Luzon Basin.
No comments:
Post a Comment