The Philippine Petroleum Association (PAP) has asked Energy Secretary-designate Raphael Perpetuo M. Lotilla to finally push for the resumption of oil and gas exploration activities within Philippine basins – an investment domain that practically stalled under the Duterte administration.
“It is extremely imperative for the country to resume oil and gas exploration as soon as possible,” PAP Chairman Rufino B. Bomasang emphasized.
He noted that the upstream oil and gas industry shares Lotilla’s view on “the country’s precarious energy security situation – with its almost total dependence on imported oil and the imminent depletion of Malampaya gas.”
Edgar Benedict C. Cutiongco, president of PAP, also asserted “We need somebody like Secretary Lotilla to provide the springboard for the much-needed quantum leap to a more sustainable and secured energy situation in the country.”
In a letter to Lotilla, Bomasang further sounded off that PAP members “are excited at the new opportunities for energy growth and development that will thrive under your leadership.”
Bomasang cited the DOE secretary-designate's decades of experience and commitment to the energy sector that will make an invaluable contribution to the success of the industry.
In the past administration, petroleum seismic surveys as well as drilling activities had been practically zero despite the lifting of moratorium of oil and gas exploration at the diplomatically-strained West Philippine Sea.
Despite the multi-continent travels of the former Department of Energy (DOE) officials for roadshows on the Duterte administration-designed Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program (PCECP), foreign investors’ appetite had not been really whetted for them to inject capital into the country’s upstream oil and gas sector.
There had been attempts on the part of the Filipino companies to commence exploration activities at their awarded petroleum blocks, but China’s maneuvers prompted the cancellation of the proposed extended seismic surveys and targeted drillings – even if proponent-companies already engaged their contractors.
Under the updated Philippine Energy Plan (PEP), the DOE is eyeing investment influx of up to P502 billion within 20 years to concretize targeted oil and gas reserves extraction – primarily up to 4.0 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas which will then be aligned as a replacement to the depleting Malampaya field.
Within the seven-year work program submitted by the service contract operators to the energy department, it was stipulated that the scale of investments flowing will be P10.1 billion for petroleum exploration activities, including those in the West Philippine Sea.
But once the petroleum blocks will result in commercial-scale discoveries, the DOE is calculating total investments of P94.4 billion for the service contracts yielding oil output; and P398 billion investments will be coming from targeted commercial gas finds once concretized.
Based on estimates, the energy department is expecting oil production hovering at 66 million barrels; and probable gas reserves extraction of 3.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF), which is a scale comparable to the proven reserves of the Malampaya field.