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FORUM Energy Plc. said the Department of Energy is approving its
long-awaited petroleum service contract covering the high-frontier
Sampaguita oil and gas discovery in offshore Palawan.
In a statement, the United Kingdom-based company
said the government has notified the company that its geophysical
survey and exploration contract (GSEC) 101 license in the Northwest
Palawan basin is set to be converted into a full service contract.
This would allow the company to finally start drilling activities in
the highly prospective site.
“The company has been notified in writing by
the Philippines’ Department of Energy that the service contract to
be entered into under the GSEC101 license is in its final draft,”
the company said.
GSEC 101 is 70-percent owned by Forum Energy and
30-percent by Monte Oro Resources & Energy Inc., the mother
company of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp., which in turn owns 30
percent of the concession company that won the bidding for the
National Transmission Corp. in December last year.
Projections put it that the area covered by GSEC
101 can rival the production from the Malampaya, the country’s
largest natural gas field, which feeds three power plants.
The area was earlier embroiled in a contract
dispute after the Chinese claimed it to be part of a tripartite deal
for joint exploration in the Spratly’s Islands among state-owned
companies of the Philippines, China and Vietnam. Forum Energy said
the agreement “may have delayed the conversion of GSEC 101” to a
service contract, an option that was pre-negotiated with the
government, since last year.
The tripartite agreement, or the Joint Marine
Seismic Undertaking (JMSU), however, expired in July and has yet to
be renewed by the parties.
Forum Energy said that it is mulling a mandatory
tender offer made by Philex Petroleum Corp. (PPC) “to acquire the
entire and to be issued ordinary shares of the company which are not
already owned or otherwise contracted to be acquired” after the
latter bought into the UK-based firm.
PPC, a majority owned subsidiary of Philex
Mining Corp., earlier acquired a 13.94-percent stake in Forum Energy
for $3.797 million.
Both Monte Oro and Philex Mining are chaired by
Walter Brown.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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