More investments urged in oil, gas search

MANILA, Philippines - The government must strongly promote investments in oil and gas explorations given the expected depletion of gas field reserves of the Malampaya natural gas by 2024.

Territorial disputes between China and the Philippines are also blocking progress, according to a March 2014 report of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) titled Intensifying Oil and Gas Exploration.  

CPBRD is the think-tank of the House of Representatives.

The study said that while there are initiatives currently being undertaken to expand the Malampaya operations, these are not enough.

The CPBRD said that initiatives currently being undertaken to expand the Malampaya operations, estimated to cost $1 billion, such as the drilling of two wells in the Camago area and the installation of additional compressor to extract more gas from the reservoir, were designed to improve existing production capacity.

“However, the potential effects of these expansion projects are perceived to be inadequate,” the CPBRD said.

“Thus, it is imperative that the government strongly promote investments in oil and gas explorations in partnership with the private sector to ensure that the country’s energy and power requirements in the future are met sufficiently,” it added.

The CPBRD noted that from 2002 to 2011, the Philippines has attracted only 24 oil and gas explorations. This is far below the developments in its neighbors with Indonesia attracting 474 projects in the same period, Malaysia 226, Thailand 137 and Vietnam 116.

To date, there are about 29 service contracts for petroleum exploration at various stages of development. The Department of Energy (DOE) is launching another round of bidding for petroleum exploration next month.