Petronas welcome to Mindanao -- MILF's Murad

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 6): Petronas welcome to Mindanao -- MILF's Murad

 The Malaysian national oil firm, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is welcome to return to explore oil and gas deposits in Mindanao, once the issue of natural resources ownership, under negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government, is completed. MILF chairman Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim said Petronas is one of the oil and gas companies the MILF is looking at, once Mindanao is ready to exploit its hydrocarbon resources. "Once we are ready to open for (oil and gas) exploration, then Petronas can be one of the companies that we are looking to," he told Bernama in an exclusive interview here. There was no immediate reaction from the Philippine government.

 He said Petronas had established its presence in the Mindanao region a few years ago, carrying out early stage exploration works. Petronas had partnered with the Philippines National Oil Company to search for oil and gas deposits in several potential blocks in the country, without achieving much success. Murad, the head of southern Philippines' largest armed rebel groups, was in Johor Baharu to attend the 8th World Islamic Economic Forum at the Persada Johor International Convention Center. The MILF and the Philippine government recently entered a historic Framework of Agreement on the Bangsamoro, ending years of conflict between the two parties. The framework agreement, brokered by Malaysia, was signed at the Malacanang Palace in Manila and witnessed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

Murad said oil and gas was one of the natural resources it wanted to exploit for economic purposes, as a means to uplift the economic status of the Bangsamoro people. He cited an area in central Mindanao called the "Liguasan Marsh", claimed to contain huge hydrocarbon reserves.  The MILF chief said before any oil and gas exploration could begin, the group and the Manila government would have to iron out details concerning the issue of natural resources ownership. "On the government side, it seems that they are agreeable for the ownership of the natural resources to be given to the Bangsamoro, but then they wanted to exclude oil and natural gas. So it is still subject to further negotiations," he said. Nevertheless, Murad expects the Bangsamoro people to have significant control over the natural resources in the area. Besides oil and gas deposits, the Mindanao region is also blessed with huge untapped amount of highly-valued minerals such as gold, copper, iron, chromite ore and nickel.

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