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CEBU CITY—Confirming
the presence of oil in commercial quantity and quality
beneath Tañon Strait, between the islands of Cebu and
Negros, will take two months, an energy official has
said.
Antonio
Labios, Visayas field officer of the Department of
Energy, said an announcement could be made in the next
one or two months whether oil was found.
The
Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex) Philippines Ltd.
ended its $60-million, 45-day oil-drilling exploration
in
Tañon Strait
in February.
“They
have sent the samples and their findings to Japan. It
could take one month for the analysis to come out,”
Labios told the BusinessMirror.
Japex
towed a semisubmersible rig in a spot some 1 km off
Pinamungajan and Aloguinsan towns in western Cebu and
drilled 3 km deep to confirm traces of oil deposits
found during an earlier seismic survey.
Labios
did not discount the possibility of another exploratory
drilling, but gave assurances that a second operation
would require a new set of environmental permits,
allaying fears of environmentalists and fishermen in
Tañon.
A
multisectoral monitoring team (MMT) recently cleared
Japex of any negative impact to the environment.
According to MMT leader Allan Cuñado of the Environment
Management Bureau, the effects of the exploration were
“within the applicable standards” set by the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources.
A group
of lawyers, who claim to represent the “permanent
residents” of Tañon—like dolphins and whales—filed a
case in the Supreme Court to stop Japex from conducting
exploration and to stop the government from further
allowing exploration in the area. |
