Philex Pet, Reopens Firm With China National Offshore Oil Corp.

By: Rahel Udasan

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Petroleum Corp. reopened the negation with the  China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) for a possible tie-up in the resourceful  Recto Bank in Northern Palawan. Top executive officer of said the  Petroleum Corp plans to finance as much as $70 million to drill two more exploration wells in the disputed area in the next two years.

Philex Petroleum chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan told reporters they are considering how to organize in respect to the extension, how to mobilize the funds needed for the assessment wells by  the year 2016 while the at same time they are taking a corresponding track in trying to restore the negotiations about the partnership in the Recto Bank with CNOOC. .

In April 2012, some officials of Philex Petroleum met the government-owned CNOOC 
officials  in Beijing saying they were at the ground of discussion while they believe that the discussion will take a long while.

Philex Petroleum announced it is open to partnering with anyone even with China as long as it can help feat  the potential resources of the Recto Bank. Recto Bank lies near the disputed Spratly Islands where both countries  defend their territorial claim over the Island.

Pangilinan said partnering with CNOOC will facilitate the development of SC 72 that covers an area of 8,800 square kilometers and believes that CNOOC is a fully-unified oil company which will bring the level of expertise to the project. CNOOC might also arrange the  financing for the project development.

As of April 2012, Forum Energy conducted a survey and it revealed that the Recto Bank’ potential resource could reach as high 16.612 trillion cubic feet of  natural gas and 416 million barrels of oil. 

Source: ABS-CBN News