Twenty-one groups expressed interest in the latest Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program to develop indigenous sources of energy, a government official said.
“We have 14 pre-determined areas under PCECP. Thirteen have applied for the pre-determined areas and eight nominated for a potential area, so actually PCECP is a hybrid of PECR [Philippine Energy Contracting Round] and application by nomination,” Energy Undersecretary Donato Marcos said.
The PECR was the previous contracting round for oil and gas exploration which focused only on bidding out areas to prospective investors.
The PECR was revised to PCECP, a transparent petroleum service contract awarding mechanism that allows the government to develop and utilize indigenous petroleum resources under a service contract with qualified local and international exploration companies.
Under the PCECP, awarding of service contracts are conducted either through the competitive selection process or via nomination.
Meanwhile, Marcos said all areas offered received interest except the Cotabato basin which is being offered as Area 10.
“For the Cotabato basin, there was an intent but nothing formal. When you launch, the race application starts and we have at least 180 days to submit the bid for that,” Marcos said.
He said prospective investors might still be looking for partners for Area 10 which had a “high probability.”
The remaining 13 pre-determined areas for potential petroleum exploration and development activities under PCECP are Area 1 (Cagayan Basin), Areas 2,3 and 4 (East Palawan Basin), Areas 5,6,7 (Sulu Sea), Area 8 and 9 (Agusan-Davao basin) and Areas 11, 12, 13 and 14 (West Luzon).
