Spain’s Repsol keen on exploring for oil, gas in PH

A subsidiary of Spanish petroleum firm Repsol wants to look for oil and gas in an area off northwest Palawan, a prospective block in which the company is so far the only one to show interest, according to the Department of Energy.

Repsol Exploracion SA was the only prospective contractor that applied for a service contract in the area that the DOE calls “Nominated Area No. 4” under the Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program (PCECP).

“We actively welcome all PCECP applications, as each one has the potential to bring us closer to desire to maximize the exploration, development, and utilization of our indigenous energy resources to help us attain energy security and independence,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said in a statement.

Cusi said Repsol passed a technical, legal, and financial “completeness check” done last Oct. 28 by the Energy Resource Development Bureau and a technical working group composed of staff members from the DOE’s Legal Services and Financial Services.

Repsol’s application will undergo further substantive evaluation within 15 working days.

Last August, the DOE formally received the applications of six groups for a total of seven areas—four “pre-determined areas” (PDAs) and three nominated areas—across the archipelago where the companies hope to find commercially viable deposits of oil and gas.

This suggested a lukewarm response to the government’s drive to reinvigorate petroleum exploration in the country, having offered 14 PDAs—a list of areas that the DOE designated as open for contracting—as well as allowing investors to choose their own prospective areas beyond the list. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO