SMC eyes energy contracting round in June

MANILA, Philippines - Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) plans to participate in one of the biggest Philippine Energy Contracting Rounds (PECR) to be conducted by the Department of Energy (DOE) next month.

SMC president Ramon Ang said they are always on the prowl for more opportunities as “we are already in that business (oil and gas upstream exploration).”

He said SMC has earlier signified its willingness to help in all government endeavors to raise investments.

“We will participate in all government biddings,” he said, although he did not indicate which particular areas the conglomerate would bid for.

Last year, SMC had expressed interest in an oil and gas exploration venture in Indonesia, particularly with Merukh Corp.’s potential oil block in Rote Island and gas in Sabu Island.

Ang said they are already into upstream development business but declined to elaborate. “It is still in the works,” he said.

The SMC chief also acknowledged that since the group is already into the mining business, it is also an opportunity for them to look at oil and gas upstream development.

Starting with international roadshows, the DOE had kicked off the process for the PECR. A team is now in Perth, Australia for a roadshow on the bidding set to start on June 30.

DOE Undersecretary Jay Layug said they were able to gather a lot of interest from the investor community in Australia for the upcoming PECR 4.

At least 40 prominent Australian oil and gas exploration companies, including Anglican Resources Plc, Shell, Apache, Chevron, AWT International, Black Swan, CalEnergy, Cue Energy Resources, ENI Australia, Exxon, Neon Energy, Otto Energy, Woodside and Tap Oil, met with the Philippine delegation and signified strong interest in investing in the Philippines.

“The investor interest is overwhelming and everybody is keenly awaiting the availability of the DOE technical data for their immediate evaluation. We were pleasantly surprised with the turnout despite the short notice,” Layug said.

Aside from Australia, another team, this time to be headed by Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, will be holding a series of similar roadshow in the US and Europe. Another roadshows will also be held in Singapore.

Under PECR 4, 15 new oil and gas exploration areas with a total size of more than 10 million hectares located in Northwest Palawan, East Palawan and Sulu Sea basins would be offered to investors.

Among these areas are: Area 1 (544,000 hectares) in Cagayan; Area 2 (676,000) in Central Luzon; Area 3 (600,000) in Northwest Palawan; Area 4 (616,000) Northwest Palawan; Area 5 (424,000) Northwest Palawan; Area 6 (840,000) in Mindoro Cuyo; Area 7 (844,000) in Mindoro Cuyo; Area 8 (840,000) in East Palawan; Area 9 (840,000) in East Palawan; Area 10 (640,000) in East Palawan; Area 11 (600,000) in Cotabato; Area 12 (456,000) in Cotabato; Area 13 (648,000) in East Palawan; Area 14 (983,900) in East Palawan and Area 15 (482,000) in Sulu Sea.

Over the past decade, the country’s first gas find, the Malampaya field located in Northwest Palawan, has produced a total of 970 billion cubic feet of gas, 43.9 million barrels of condensate and 1.9 million barrels of oil.

Another three out of the four deepwater wells drilled by ExxonMobil were also declared gas discoveries.