Resume oil exploration projects, govt urged

Rep. Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur’s second district urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to reactivate oil and gas exploration ventures in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) that were temporarily suspended last year while the arbitration case that the country lodged against China was pending before an international tribunal at The Hague in The Netherlands.

“It is in the national interest that we renew forthwith the quest for new deep-water natural gas deposits because Malampaya, which supplies some 40 percent of Luzon’s power demand, might be depleted within the next decade,” Pimentel, a member of the House Committee on National Defense and Security, said in a statement.