Pangilinan-led PXP Energy Corporation is seeking anew the imprimatur of the government to recommence its targeted petroleum exploration activities at the “unsettled waters” of the West Philippine Sea.

“PXP and Forum will continue to coordinate with the government on the resumption of activities in both SC (Service Contract) 75 and SC 72,” the company has stated in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Forum Energy is the corporate vehicle of PXP Energy in its planned exploration and production (E&P) ventures at SC72, which covers the Recto Bank.

Both petroleum service contracts straddle Palawan basin, but the areas are within the disputed territory that has been a subject of continued diplomatic friction with China.

In April last year, PXP Energy was already all set on the resumption of its extended seismic survey at Service Contracts 72 and 75, but with China pulling strings with the past Duterte administration, the company’s exploration activities had been hurriedly stopped.

Since then, a moratorium on E&P activities had been declared on the specified blocks and was eventually affirmed by a formal correspondence from the Department of Energy.

Recto Bank is widely perceived as a block that can match the “gas potential discovery” of the Malampaya field, but if the Philippine government will not muster enough courage to stand up for its rightful exclusive economic zone (EEZ), then its indigenous gas prospects as well as its energy security goals will continue to be drowned through deep waters until they dry up.

Comparatively, in other energy markets in the ASEAN region, their government leaderships have taken brave stance in challenging territorial dispute in the bodies of water covering their EEZs, with Indonesia recently giving its go-signal for petroleum exploration at East Natuna block, an area also being claimed by China.

Meanwhile, as uncertainties still abound for Service Contracts 72 and 75, PXP Energy indicated that it “shall continue to pursue exploration work with respect to its other projects in the Philippines, including SC 40 (in North Cebu) and SC 74 (in Northwest Palawan).”

In a related development, PXP Energy reported that its net loss last year dipped to P22 million from P32.5 million in 2021; and that was mainly attributed to the “improvement in Galoc operations and reduction in recurring overhead.”

On account of that, the consolidated net loss attributable to the equity holders of the parent firm had substantially declined to P36.1 million from a mammoth P1.714 billion in the prior year, “due to one-time impairment and decommissioning charges incurred in 2021.”

Disparately, the consolidated revenues of the company had jumped by 15-percent to P74.1 million versus P64.2 million in 2021 in spite of the lower crude oil offtake from the Galoc field.

It has to be noted that 2022 was a year of “extraordinary surges” in oil prices in the world market, as precipitated mainly by the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war.