Gov’t sets third geothermal bidding in Aug

The government is set to conduct the third round of geothermal bidding round in August this year, a ranking energy official said.

Energy Undersecretary Guillermo Balce said they have concluded the second geothermal bid round last December.

"We were able to bid out only two sites," Balce said, noting that the geothermal sites in Biliran and Davao were won by state-owned Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC).

Balce said they expect to finalize the contract with PNOC-EDC by April or May this year.

"This timeline will allow us to hold the next geothermal round by August of this year," the DOE official said.

He said the sites that will be included in the third geothermal bidding round will cover areas that have not been sold during the previous biddings.

The government is conducting the public bidding of indigenous energy sources to achieve a 60-percent energy self-sufficiency by 2010.

In August 2005, the energy department opened for bidding promising sites for coal, geothermal and petroleum exploration and development.

Seven areas were offered for exploration, development and production of the country’s coal resources. The areas have a total resource potential of 741 million metric tons of coal.

For geothermal, 11 areas for exploration, development and/or direct utilization for power generation use and other geothermal applications were offered. Lastly, four contract areas within offshore Palawan and Sulu Sea were offered for petroleum exploration.

The four petroleum contract areas cover a total 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.

More than 20 local and international upstream companies have evaluated the investment opportunities for coal, geothermal and petroleum exploration and development during the period of investment promotions.