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MANILA – (UPDATED 5:27 p.m.) Three petroleum exploration areas, including two in disputed waters of the West Philippine Sea, received bids from prospective investors during a public auction held on Tuesday, according to the Department of Energy.
The DOE said Helios Petroleum & Gas Corp. submitted a bid for Area 3, which is deep into the West Philippine Sea.
Area 4, which is adjacent the Galoc oil field, received competing bids from Helios Petroleum and the consortium of Philex Petroleum Corp., Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. and PetroEnergy Resources Corp.
Area 5, which is located between Palawan Island and the Calamianes Group of Islands, received a bid from the joint venture of Pitkin Petroleum Plc. and The Philodrill Corp.
UK-listed Pitkin, which is the only foreign company that participated in the auction, is partly owned by Philex Petroleum.
China is claiming Areas 3 and 4 as part of its territory, but none of the bidders expressed concern over this, said Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr.
"What we have done is followed through our PECR guidelines and offered only those areas that are well within our 200- nautical mile exclusive economic zone. We don't see any problem with what we have done. These areas are clearly within the sovereign rights of the Philippines," he said.
Under the guidelines for the Philippine Energy Contracting Round, the DOE has 100 working days to complete the evaluation of the offers before recommending them to Malacanang for the approval of the President.
The DOE initially lined up 15 petroleum contracts in the PECR last April but moved the opening of bids for the three areas to July because of the large volume of data it received from potential bidders.
Including last April’s auction, the DOE received 20 bids out of 38 companies that prequalified for the oil and gas projects. The number of bids for the current PECR is more than the 12 combined offers from the past three PECRs.
Layug said the interest shown by investors was a result of high oil prices, confidence in the Aquino administration and the reforms implemented to streamline and make the energy contracting round transparent.
"The Philippines is also relatively under explored. We are now a potential emerging site for oil and gas exploration," the DOE official said.
The Philippines has 27 active petroleum service contracts.
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