DoE cancels more energy contracts

The Department of Energy is canceling several more energy contracts, including one for oil and gas exploration, as the government steps up efforts to weed out companies that do not comply with their respective work programs.

Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr. said the department had already sent notices to the concerned parties, which were given 60 days to post performance bonds and file their appeal.

The companies affected by the cancellation were those that failed to comply with their work programs for at least two years for renewable energy service contracts and seven years for petroleum service contracts. “In the case of a petroleum exploration company, if it has not done its seismic surveys, obviously that cannot be done in just 60 days,” Layug said.

Once the decision to cancel the contracts is rendered as final, the areas concerned may be offered in the next round of the Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR), a platform through which the government offers to investors prospective areas for exploration and development.

The latest PECR 4 is a component of the Aquino administration’s long-term plan to address the country’s energy demand through the exploration, development and utilization of its indigenous resources.

“What we plan to do is we will conduct PECRs every two years for coal, oil and gas. As for renewable energy, I think we will have to study that since we already have a lot. We have an existing 236 RE contracts and we have 341 pending RE applications,” Layug said.—Amy R. Remo