The Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday said it has received eight applications from local and foreign companies for indigenous energy resources exploration under the 1st Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Conventional Energy Bid Round and the 2024 Philippine Bid Round.
“We are very pleased that well-known international players in hydrogen and petroleum exploration and production have shown interest and participated in this year’s bid round,” DOE Undersecretary Alessandro Sales said.
The DOE noted that agency has seen the highest number of valid bids for pre-determined areas (PDAs) compared to the Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR) in 2015, which attracted five applications.
DOE and BARMM’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy (MENRE) opened the bid documents for the 1st BARMM Conventional Energy Bid Round in Makati City on Wednesday, which covers three PDAs for petroleum exploration.
The PDA-BP-1 in Cotabato Basin had one bidder, while the PDA-BP-2 and PDA-BP-3, both in Sulu Sea Basin, also had one application each, the DOE said in a statement.
On the other hand, the Philippine Bid Round has two PDAs including PDA-PH-1 and PDA-PH-2, both in Central Luzon, for natural hydrogen exploration.
The agency said the PDA-PH-1 received three applications and two for the PDA-PH-2.
Meanwhile, there was also a bidder for PDA-PD-2 for the Alegria Field for its petroleum reserves. However, the application was disqualified due to incomplete documentation.
The DOE said the next phase would determine whether the applications would translate into service contracts.
“This activity marks the beginning of a transformative journey that may span several years. If we do not embark on this activity now, it will never come to fruition,” Sales said, adding that the country has lacked in exploration activities in the past 15 years. (PNA)
