MANILA, Philippines -- The PNOC-Exploration Corp., the upstream oil and coal arm of the state-run Philippine National Oil Co., is setting its sights on five countries where it plans to further expand its exploration business.

In a filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange, PNOC-EC said it had already conducted preliminary evaluation of the farm-out offers in Nigeria as well as in four areas in Indonesia.

?The company also evaluated the Syrian onshore blocks for the international 2010 bid round and checked some areas in Australia and Myanmar,? the company said.

PNOC-EC further reported that it previously looked into potential exploration projects in Colombia, but did not participate in a bidding round there.

?After the completion of the technical evaluation of the proposed area over the Tumaco Offshore basin in Colombia in February 2010, PNOC-EC and its potential joint venture partner decided not to participate in the 2010 Colombia Bid Round due to time constraint and high land seismic survey cost in Colombia,? it explained.

As for its existing coal projects in Indonesia, PNOC-EC reported that PT Trikarya Intidrill Persada completed 12 in-fill drill holes in February 2010, confirming the thickness and coal quality within the block, in which it has interests.

It explained that the outcrop samples gathered and recorded were submitted to PT Geoservices for laboratory analyses.

By April, the results of the analyses were submitted to PT Runge, which was engaged as third party assessor to evaluate the project's economic viability. In the following month, PT Runge submitted the final draft of the assessment report to PNOC EC where 3.2 million metric tons of coal reserves were reported in the western portion of the project area.

Last June, PNOC-EC requested Putra Asyano Mutiara Timur (PAMT), the mine concession owner of Ampah in Central Kalimantan for an extension of the due diligence to further explore the central part of the coal block.

It was in 2008 that PNOC-EC signed a memorandum of agreement with PAMT for the conduct of technical, legal and economic due diligence to determine the viability and commerciality of operating a coal mine project in the company?s concession area in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.