DOE postpones public contracting on oil and gas

New forays into oil and gas exploration in the Philippines will have to be put on hold after the Department of Energy (DOE) opted to postpone public contracting on oil and gas, pending the resolution of an earlier dispute with the Commission on Audit (COA). Energy secretary Jose Rene Almendras said that all other public energy contracting rounds (PECRs) for coal and geothermal energy will push through, except for oil and gas. "We decided to postpone [the contracting for oil and gas] because of the COA situation. We don't want to push it unless we've addressed that, although there are many more areas available. So we'll push through with all others," Almendras said. The energy chief said that negotiations up to this point seem futile. "Recent meetings with the COA have given us an impression that it's probably best not to [push through with contracting] for the time being," he admitted. In 2003, the DOE initiated the First Philippine Petroleum Contracting Round (PCR-1), which opened up to investors exploration blocks near oil-rich areas of Palawan and surrounding frontiers. In August 2005, the DOE followed up on the PCR-1 initiative with PECR 2005, which opened up investment opportunities for the exploration and development of petroleum resources as well as coal and geothermal resources. However, a subsequent COA report revealed that the Malampaya consortium allegedly shortchanged th government by some P53 billion on the project. The COA report claimed that the consortium used government royalties from the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project to offset the consortium's income taxes, resulting in revenue losses for the government from 2003 to 2009. The claim is currently being investigated by a Congressional probe. — TJD/VS, GMANews.TV