Government undertakes oil exploration projects

The government is currently undertaking several oil exploration projects in the country to help lessen dependence on imported fuel, President Arroyo said yesterday.

"We have many new oil exploration projects and there are quite a few contracts," Mrs. Arroyo told a news conference in Malacañang.

The President said she also sought the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to look into the factors triggering the surge in world oil prices.

She pointed out the need for an input from the IMF on whether crude prices are being dictated by demand or simply increased due to speculation.

Mrs. Arroyo noted that even US President George W. Bush, the leader of a world superpower, is virtually powerless to bring down world oil prices.

She called on the people to unite and cooperate with various programs to help bring down prices of basic commodities and conserve energy.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said it was a welcome relief that oil firms cut their prices by as much as P1 last Thursday.

Bunye said the fuel price rollback is a sign that a free market is at work and "this is as it should be" under the Oil Deregulation Law.

"We are hoping that global oil prices will continue to stabilize and further pull down pump and LPG prices," Bunye said.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced early this year that it had signed a service contract with Petronas of Malaysia and the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) for a petroleum exploration block in the waters off Mindoro.

The project would include the drilling of an exploratory well, as well as geological and geophysical studies and possibly seismic survey.

There is also an option to either drill another exploratory well or acquire new seismic data in the area.

Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Dato Sri Mohd Hassan bin Marican said that the company’s subsidiary Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd (PCOSB) has earmarked $12.5 million for the project to be completed within seven years.

PCOSB would be the operator with 80-percent participating interest, while PNOC-EC will hold the remaining 20 percent. The Energy Department, on the other hand, will supervise the exploration.

The work program under the Offshore Mindoro Service Contract will be completed during the first two years, after which the contractors can decide whether to proceed with the subsequent phases of the exploration period in the service contract.

This will be Petronas’ second project in the Philippines following its previous efforts in the Cotabato Basin in Mindanao in 1995.

The Petronas deal in Service Contract 47 is the third signed since the Supreme Court ratified the Mining Act last Dec. 1.

The first deal, Service Contract 45, was awarded to China’s South Sea Petroleum Holdings Limited which is exploring of oil and gas in the Agusan-Davao Basin; the second, Service Contract 46, was awarded to Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Limited (Japex), for oil and gas exploration over the Tanon Straits in Negros Occidental.

Last year, the DOE signed two other petroleum service contracts, with the Singapore-based firm Gas to Grid Pte. Ltd. in Central Cebu, and with British firm Premier Oil Philippines B.V. over the Ragay Gulf in the Bicol region and parts of Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province.