Gatchalian firm may get nod to explore for oil, gas off Mindoro

Wellex Petroleum Corp., the oil exploration firm of plastics king William Gatchalian, is expected to bag the contract to explore for oil and gas in the offshore Mindoro- Cuyo basin, a ranking energy official said.

Former Energy Undersecretary Guillermo Balce, now a consultant at the Department of Energy, said the contract is part of the third Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR).

Balce said Wellex may be allowed to explore rights over Area 3 covering 1.084 million hectares in Block 1 of the Mindoro-Cuyo basin.

“DOE is preparing the service contracts for Area 3 and 2,” said Balce, who was responsible in the PECR activities of the DOE.

Wellex recently signed a partnership with Southern PEC Petrochemical, a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) to strengthen its presence in the mining and exploration industries.

At the same time, the contract for Area 2 covering 684,000 hectares in Central Luzon , Balce said, will likely go to Polistrat International, a company focused on energy and security issues.

Balce said Pitkin Petroleum Ltd. is also expected to secure a contract to explore in Block 2 of Area 4 also covering the Mindoro-Cuyo basin with a total size of 1.164 million hectares.

Pitkin country manager Christopher Jackson earlier said the DOE has given the proposal of Pitkin “priority consideration.”

“After a thorough evaluation of your financial, legal and technical qualifications... we have selected your submitted proposal, together with South China Resources Inc. for a petroleum service contract in Area 4 under the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 2006,” Balce said.

The DOE negotiating panel, Balce said, is in talks with Pitkin and South China to work out a mutually acceptable service contract.

PECR 2006 offers nine petroleum contract areas covering 7.26 million hectares in shallow to deep waters within the prospective basins of East Palawan and Mindoro-Cuyo as well as in the promising basins of Cagayan, Central Luzon , Visayas and Agusan-Davao.

Government hopes to generate more than $200 million worth of investments in last year’s petroleum contracting round.

Aside from the oil and gas prospects, fourteen coal prospects with a combined estimated reserves of 421 million metric tons (MMT) in Quezon, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Davao Oriental and Zamboanga Sibugay were also offered for bidding under PECR 3.

Geothermal energy equivalent to about 100 megawatts power generation in the areas of Batangas, Biliran and Compostela Valley were also offered to prospective investors under the PECR 3.

The DOE launched in 2004 the contracting round for oil, coal, geothermal exploration areas to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuel.