DOE says oil and gas exploration needs investments

The Department of Energy (DOE) has identified a number of issues in the petroleum sector that need to be addressed to encourage more investments in the oil and gas exploration in the country.

DOE documents show that one of the issues is slackened exploration activity due to the economic and political crisis.

However, DOE officials said the current developments in the political scene like the change in administration will enable the country to regain the confidence of investors and, thus, the economy is expected to recover this year.

New Petroleum Players Association of the Philippines president Fernando N. Martinez said that for their part, they are more upbeat about the prospects of the oil industry this year.

"The change in administration will definitely bring back confidence and better business for the oil sector," Martinez said. According to him, they foresee that the economy could easily recover and register growth of five percent. "We can recover what we lost in 2002, we can start to see real net growth (in the economy)," he said.

Among the other issues that need to be looked at in the oil and gas exploration side are: the pipeline third-party access, coping with technological advances (skills and equipment); energy research budget/funding; and department-wide incentives for technical/scientific personnel.

On the other hand, the DOE has listed a number of possible solutions to these issues. Among these are the conduct of policy studies, consultation with petroleum contractors, facilitate passage of oil and gas bill, petroleum resource re-assessment, training and upgrading of equipment and increase research budget. – Donnabelle Gatdula