RP attracts proposals for petroleum, coal exploration
By Niel V. Mugas, Reporter
THE Philippines has received 11 proposals for the exploration and production of petroleum and coal resources, strengthening the country’s campaign for energy self-sufficiency, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced Friday.
While six of the proposals submitted came from local and international upstream companies, which were interested in oil and gas exploration, the remaining five formally requested to search and develop the country’s coal resources.
Meanwhile, the energy department is still awaiting the report of the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) regarding proposals on geothermal exploration. These proposals were submitted to the department as part of the Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR), which require companies to transmit their requests for exploration of specific locations in order to secure service contracts from the government.
Under the PECR, which was opened in August and closed November 29 this year, the Philippines offered four petroleum contract areas for exploration of oil and gas reserves. The contract areas have a total coverage area of 53,989.40 square kilometers in shallow to deep waters located near proven petroleum reserves in offshore Southwest Palawan, East Palawan and Sulu Sea basin.
Meanwhile, seven areas were offered for exploration, development and production of the country’s coal resources, which have a total resource potential of 741 million metric tons of coal.
Eleven areas were offered for geothermal exploration, development, and/or direct utilization for power generation use and other applications.
“The proposals submitted will now be reviewed by the DOE on the basis of work program, financial and technical qualifications of contractors, among others. We are hopeful that we will find partners toward development of our own energy resources to move us closer to our goal of energy self-sufficiency,” Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla said, adding that the contracts are expected to be awarded in June 2006.
The energy department also expressed confidence that the heightened interest of investors to explore for oil, coal and geothermal resources will ensure the country’s energy self-sufficiency.
The government aims to achieve 60-percent energy self-sufficiency by 2010, using indigenous energy including domestic oil and gas resources.
New technologies to maximize geothermal reserves
In a related development, an executive of a leading multinational geothermal firm said that the country may have to use new exploration and development technologies if it wants to utilize its huge geothermal energy reserves, which remain untapped.
In a presentation before the Asean Council on Petroleum (Ascope), Antonio Yee, Unocal Philippines president, said the Philippine government, through the Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC), which owns the geothermal fields, and interested contractors may have to use new technologies to harness such reserves.
Based on DOE estimates, there are 4,000 megawatts of geothermal energy that remain untapped.
These untapped geothermal resources are not easily identified, Yee said.
“New exploration and development technologies are likely to be required to realize this potential, since the most easily identified resources have already been developed,” Yee said.
While a bulk of the Philippine energy mix is still cornered by oil and coal, geothermal energy accounts for 19 percent in 2004.
Unocal Philippines, which was acquired by American firm Chevron Texaco in August this year, owns several steam fields in the country. These include the gas fields in Tiwi, Albay, and the one in Makban, in the boundary of Laguna and Batangas provinces.
It parent firm Unocal has 1,156 megawatts of installed geothermal capacity in Southeast Asia.
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