The government unveiled a plan to drill more oil and natural gas wells to boost local production and reduce reliance on imported commodities.
More oil and gas drillings are expected under the Department of Energy’s proposed Philippine Energy Plan for 2023 to 2050 that would bring local production to 4.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 42.14 million barrels of crude oil by 2050.
The oil and gas industry roadmap covers short term (2023 to 2024), medium term (2025 to 2028) and long-term (2029 to 2050) goals.
It calls for the drilling of at least two oil and one gas field prospects in the short term that would expand the country’s potential resources by 4.5 million to 15 million barrels of oil and 217 billion cubic feet of gas.
The DOE specifically aims to produce 1.2 MMB of crude oil and 220 billion cubic feet of natural gas during the period.
The DOE said that for the medium term, it is looking at increasing potential resources with additional 8.77 to 19.23 MMB of oil and 2.6 TCF of gas prospects from the development of two oil and four gas fields. This is expected to lead to actual production of around 15.9 MMB of oil and 522.4 BCF of natural gas in the medium term.
It said for the long term, the government plans to drill six oil and six gas prospects to unlock an additional resources of 1,436 to 4,039 MMB of oil and 11.7 to 24.3 TCF of gas.
The drillings are estimated to produce 42.14 MMB of crude oil and 4.6 TCF of natural gas in the long term.
DOE director for energy policy and planning bureau Michael Sinocruz said the agency was planning to conduct the Philippine Gradiometry and Seismic Geophysical Survey Project where new data would be used “to provide a comprehensive analysis on unexplored basins”.
Data from the DOE show there are 17 active petroleum service contracts in the Philippines, including 11 in the exploration phase and six in the production phase.
The Philippines’ total petroleum demand reached 26.803 billion liters in 2022, up 9.2 percent from 24.553 billion liters in 2021.
This translated into an average daily requirement of 73.4 million liters in 2022, up from 67.3 million liters in 2021 amid the increased economic activity and less stringent travel restrictions implemented nationwide.
Imported oil products amounted to $19.579 billion in 2022.
