THE Department of Energy (DOE) said on Thursday that it recently completed a road show of the Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR 4) in Perth, Australia.
The PECR 4, according to the DOE, forms part of President Aquino’s long-term plans to address the Philippines’ need for oil and gas and reduce dependence on imported oil, which provides for transparent and competitive system of tendering onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks for exploration to interested oil and gas companies.
DOE said at least 40 prominent Australian oil and gas exploration companies, including, among others, 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 their strong interest in investing in the Philippines.
Energy Undersecretary Jay Layug said investor interest is overwhelming and everybody keenly awaits the availability of the DOE technical data for their immediate evaluation.
“We were pleasantly surprised with the turnout despite the short notice,” Layug said.
Under this contracting round, DOE determines the winning bidders based on specific technical, legal and financial criteria. The President of the Philippines then awards service contracts pursuant to the mandate of the 1987 Philippine Constitution and Presidential Decree 87, or The Oil Exploration and Development Act of 1972.
The Australian road show is a kick-off event to promote the official launch of the PECR 4 this coming June 30. Similar road shows will also be done in Singapore, Houston and London. PECR 4 will offer 15 blocks with a total area of more than 10 million hectares located in Northwest Palawan, East Palawan and Sulu Sea basins. Northwest Palawan is home to the Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power Project in the Philippines, the largest and most successful natural gas industrial project in Philippine history.
DOE said a lot of investors have already registered for the Singapore and London presentations and are awaiting information pertaining to the blocks to be offered.
