Philex-led consortium gets SC75 contract

Philex Petroleum Corp. has received a copy of Petroleum Service Contract No. 75 (SC 75) from the Department of Energy, which is getting ready to launch another round of auctions for oil and coal contracts in the first quarter of the year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex Petroleum said the oil exploration contract was awarded under the fourth round of the Philippine Energy Contracting Round for Petroleum (PECR) to the group consisting of Philex Petroleum (operator, 50 percent), PNOC Exploration Corp. (35 percent) and PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (15 percent).

The oil-rich SEC 75 area covers about 616,000 hectares in the Northwest Palawan Basin and is referred to as Area 4 in PECR4, which was conducted in 2012.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said the DOE was readying a list of oil and coal areas that might be auctioned off under PECR5.

DOE officials said they were planning to go on an international road show to promote new oil and gas exploration blocs to investors under PECR5.

Energy Undersecretary Ramon Allan V. Oca said the road shows would be timed with international conferences to reach a bigger audience. “The AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) has an annual conference. It would be good if we can time the road show with this because all the oil companies will be there,” Oca said. Riza T. Olchondra