Interest in petroleum exploration data waning

MANILA  -There has been a sharp decline in interest for petroleum data acquisition in the country, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Friday, as the agency fast-tracks plans for oil and gas development amid global pressure to transition to renewable energy.

The DOE emphasized that while exploration activities were largely data-driven and “require different sets of petroleum data to identify prospective areas for oil and gas,” it had observed a dip in received project proposals.

As a solution, the agency proposed to streamline the evaluation and awarding of service provider contracts for the acquisition of new petroleum data in the country.

Under the draft circular published on Friday, interested service providers must first submit a letter of intent to the Energy Resource Development Bureau, along with other requirements, such as a project proposal.

Once deemed qualified, a service provider will be endorsed to the Office of the Secretary for approval before a contract is awarded.

The DOE will “wholly and exclusively” own all the data generated by the service provider.

Service providers may also be given up to 10 years to exclusively market and sell their acquired petroleum data.

After a 10-year period, data acquired will be declassified or publicly released, allowing free access to relevant petroleum information and encouraging more exploration and production companies “to spur exploration activities leading to the discovery of more oil gas fields in the country.”

“In awarding contracts under this circular, the DOE shall consider the latest applicable technology on petroleum data acquisition and processing,” the DOE said.