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MANILA - The Department of Energy aims to offer oil and gas projects over the Benham Rise in offshore northeast Philippines next year.
"It would be nice to do it alongside Philippine Energy Contracting Round 5. It will be good to include that in PECR 5," Undersecretary Jose M. Layug, Jr. said.
PECR is the DOE's public contracting round for upstream petroleum service contracts. The bulk of these oil and gas projects, however, are located in offshore Palawan Basin.
In line with the DOE's target to include Benham Rise in the contracting round's next instalment in 2013, Layug said the agency may tap seismic survey firms to help identify potential reserves in the area.
"Now that it is ours, it might be a good time to acquire seismic data," he said.
Layug earlier said four firms already forwarded proposals to survey the eastern portion of the Philippines for possible petroleum reserves.
Located in the north eastern tip of Luzon, Benham Rise is an undersea land mass that covers an area of 13 million hectares and is believed to hold substantial gas and mineral deposits.
The United Nations recently awarded Benham Rise to the Philippines after no other country staked its claim in the territory.
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