The Energy Department expects 10 to 12 oil drillings in 2012 amid high global oil prices and a favorable local investment climate, a government official said over the weekend.
Mr Jay Layug energy undersecretary told reporters that "We have firm commitments of about 10 to 12 drillings in 2012. That is a good sign. It's unusual. We don't get that often."
Mr Layug said oil and gas companies might have decided to speed up their exploration programs due to the renewed spike in world oil prices, government's efforts to assist the companies in their projects and strong investor confidence in the Aquino administration.
He added that "Oil prices are high, so in an environment that you have oil prices higher, more exploration. They've also seen that the government is serious in implementing its exploration program and we are helping them resolve administrative issues."
He cited the strong investor confidence in the government as reflected by the ongoing auction of oil and gas exploration blocks.
He said that "Now, especially in the energy contracting round, a lot of people have expressed interest already. They will submit bids, according to them, so we expect that there will be a lot of bidders when we award the contracts."
Among those that will conduct drilling this year are Blade Petroleum (Cadlao block, service contract 6 in northern Palawan), Galoc Production Co, (SC 14 in NW Palawan), PNOC Exploration Corporation (SC 37 in Cagayan and SC 63 in SW Palawan), Gas2Grid (SC 44 in Visayas Basin), CIMP (SC 49 in Visayas Basin), Frigstad Energy (SC 50 in NW Palawan), Pitkin Petroleum (SC 53 in Mindoro Cuyo) and BHP Billiton (SC 54 and 59 in SW Palawan).
Mr Layug said that "The government has focused on resource development as a long term plan of action in the hopes of finding indigenous oil and gas resources to reduce our dependence on imported petroleum and mitigate the effects of oil price volatility."
Energy secretary Mr Jose Rene Almendras earlier said government would address the huge discrepancy between domestic demand for oil and current oil production. He added that "Our production has gone down to 3 million barrels per year in the past decade compared to the 8 million barrels production in 1979. But this is still not enough given that our demand of about 8.7 million barrels per month, 60% to 70% of which is for transportation fuel."
He noted that the number of oil wells drilled in the Philippines had been modest. Less than 270 wells had been drilled in the Philippines since the start of the service contract system in the 1970s. Neighboring Vietnam has nearly 10 times the number of wells drilled in the Philippines.
(Sourced from www.manilastandardtoday.com)
