Stakeholders of the oil and gas industry have sought inclusion in the coverage of Executive Order 30 creating an energy council that will declare “projects of national significance.”
Energy Department director Rino Abad said the stakeholders asked for clarification of the coverage of the EO, which seemed to focus mostly on the power sector.
Abad said the industry should wait for the creation of the Energy Investment Coordinating Council headed by the department that will draw up the guidelines for the declaration of “projects of national significance.”
“We have to wait for the IRR (implementing rules and regulations) of the EO. The industry wants to be included,” Abad said.
In the event the upstream energy sector was not covered by the EO, Abad said stakeholders recommended the issuance of an executive order or law “declaring indigenous petroleum and coal exploration and development as projects of national significance.”