DoE plans to rebid 15 coal, petroleum deals

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MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Energy (DoE) plans to offer again to investors contracts to explore and develop the 15 prospective coal and petroleum areas that did not attract bids in the recent Philippine Energy Contracting Round 4.

In an interview, Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr. said that of the 38 coal blocks offered under the recent PECR 4, 11 areas did not receive any offer. Of the 12 prospective oil and gas sites up for auction, bidders submitted offers for eight.

“If a coal area is nominated again [by the private sector], we will likely offer the 11 areas at the next PECR. For petroleum, we will again offer all the four areas that did not receive bids at the next PECR,” Layug said.

Layug is hoping that the availability of improved seismic data will draw the interest of the investors in the next PECR for the exploration and development of petroleum blocks.

“In petroleum, the availability of more seismic data is critical to attract the interest of investors,” he said.

The government has stepped up efforts to encourage the private sector to harness the country’s indigenous energy sources.

The DoE received on April 27 16 bids for contracts to explore and develop oil and gas blocks. Of the number, only nine bids had qualified for further evaluation and possible awarding later this year.

Among the companies whose offers qualified for evaluation were Forum Pacific Inc., Mitra Energy Ltd., Helios Mining and Energy Corp., Dil Moro Energy, Minenergy, Loyz Oil Pte Ltd., Frontier Oil, Philodrill Corp. and Philex Petroleum. The rest of the offers, however, may still be reconsidered in the future.

These service contracts were estimated to require about $500 million in investments each.

For contracts to explore and develop coal, the DoE was able to receive on March 30 a total of 69 offers. Officials said the “overwhelming” number of bids proved the investors’ unwavering confidence in the Philippines.

Among the companies that submitted bids were Benguet Corp., Semirara Mining Corp., PNOC Exploration Corp., South Davao Development Co. Inc., SKI Mining and Empire Asia Mining Corp.

Layug earlier stressed the need for the country to harness its own coal resources given the increasing demand for the commodity, which now stood at about 12 million metric tons a year. Local production averaged 7 million MT, of which 3 million tons are exported to various Asian markets. Coal imports amount to 7 million tons a year, he said.

It is expected that over the next 20 years, coal will remain the major fuel for power generation.