The Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday said further delays are seen in awarding of West Philippine Sea oil drilling contracts where territorial disputes with neighboring countries remain unresolved. However, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla told reporters the Philippines is awarding 11 coal contracts before the year ends. He declined to name the companies, other than saying the signing will happen this week once the contracts have been fully screened and evaluated.
On the offshore oil contracts, the Energy chief said the documents to a final evaluation, which takes into consideration the technical aspects of the deals – including financial and environmental aspects –with drilling and exploration companies will be submitted to Malacañang early next year. The political aspect of the oil contracts – involving "disputed areas" – would need approval from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). "… We can't promise to give a timeframe as this is a very sensitive political matter and the DOE only deals with the technical side... and we still have to seek the opinion of the DFA regarding the matter,” said Petilla. "Everything we do has to be cleared with the DFA, especially on the issue of drilling within the disputed areas. “It is not only energy that is at stake here. We do not want to complicate things," he added.
The West Philippine (South China) Sea is being claimed in whole or parts of it by Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. “The risk of conflict in the South China Sea is significant,” author Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted in his “Contingency Planning Memorandum No. 14.” Claimant countries “... have competing territorial and jurisdictional claims, particularly over rights to exploit the region's possibly extensive reserves of oil and gas,” Glaser added.
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