MANILA, Philippines — Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan said PXP Energy Corp. had sent “feelers” to China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC) for possible joint exploration in oil and gas prospects in the West Philippine Sea once the moratorium is lifted by the Philippine government.
“We have sent feelers to CNOOC to see whether we could meet with them again as soon as they’re available to talk about the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) situation. But of course, anything with them will have to be cleared with the government,” he said.
Pangilinan is chairman of PXP Energy, which holds a 70 percent operating interest in Service Contract (SC) 72 or the Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea through London-listed Forum Energy plc.
SC 72 covers Recto (Reed) Bank in the disputed territory.
The Department of Energy issued a moratorium on all exploration and drilling works in SC 72 in December 2014 amid the rising maritime tension with China during that time.
Pangilinan said they were just waiting for the go signal from government to resume exploration works in the prospect.
Once the Philippines and China agree on a protocol for joint exploration and the moratorium is lifted, PXP Energy can start working on survey works in SC 72.
“We have to send a survey ship into the area to do the final validation and establish the baseline position of the ecology where we’re likely to drill and find the potential sites for two exploratory wells,” Pangilinan said.
President Duterte recently offered a 60-40 sharing deal with China on joint exploration.
Last month, both Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to start crafting a legal framework for joint exploration in the disputed territories.
“We have engaged both local lawyers and international lawyers to help us craft a legal structure that would test the sovereignty of the Philippine government and what these lawyers think might be acceptable to China,” he said.
“We’re business people, the thrust of our effort at SC 72 is mainly commercial. We don’t delve in sovereignty issues. We do know that we have to talk about it internally and suggest some ways to address the sovereignty issue to the government. But at the end of the day, it will be themselves and the governments that will decide,” Pangilinan said.