Hopes are raised for prospective discovery of new oil and gas resources in the country as well as for trailblazing native hydrogen ventures, with the eight qualified offers cornered by the Department of Energy (DOE) during an auction round concluded this week.

In a statement to the media, the energy department qualified that it secured five tenders for targeted hydrogen investments in Pangasinan and Zambales; and four offers for propounded upstream petroleum investments.

The blocks offered straddle various areas in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM); then the Alegria field in Cebu and Calauit field in the Northwest Palawan basin.

The identities of the bidders have not been disclosed yet by the agency, although Energy Undersecretary Alessandro Sales hinted that it is mixed bag of foreign and local investors.

The DOE emphasized that the applications have “passed the completeness check and are eligible for further substantive evaluation.”

Sales vouched that the outcome of the latest tendering process was considerably a “success”, as he cited that “well-known international players in hydrogen and petroleum exploration and production have shown interest and participated in this year’s bid round.”

The department specified that it received at least nine bids from array of interested parties; but a submission for the Alegria oil field in Cebu had been disqualified, “due to incomplete documentation.”

For the oil and gas blocks tendered via the 1st BARMM auction for pre-determined areas (PDAs), three submissions had been rated as ‘qualified bid” - covering one area within the Cotabato basin; and two blocks covering Sulu sea basin.

The award of PSAs for the petroleum blocks in the BARMM domain has to be done via the collaborative efforts of the DOE and the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy (MENRE).

According to the DOE, “the comprehensive legal, technical, and financial evaluation of all qualified applications will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024.”

Following warranted post-qualification process, the energy department conveyed that “the highest-ranking applicants from this evaluation will be endorsed to the Office of the President.”

Sales primarily cited that if the offers will eventually be concretized into tangible investment-dollars, this will be a major shift from roughly 15 years of investment drought in the upstream oil and gas industry.

"This activity marks the beginning of a transformative journey that may span several years. If we do not embark on this activity now, it will never come to fruition," the DOE stressed.

This is the first time that petroleum concession areas have been offered in the BARMM jurisdiction, following the formation of MENRE that was institutionalized by a legislated policy.

Under the Marcos administration, one investment sphere that it has been whipping up is the upstream petroleum industry as the government intensifies its search for oil and gas reserves that can replace or complement the scale of commercial production of the Malampaya field.

Until this point, however, the Philippine government is still exercising extreme caution on opening up blocks within the conflict-ridden West Philippine Sea due to the lingering diplomatic strife with China.