Philippines pushes 60-40 sharing for oil with China

MANILA, Philippines — The government would pursue a 60-40 sharing scheme with China once talks start anew this month for the exploration of oil in the West Philippine Sea, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said yesterday.

In a press briefing at Malacañang, Esperon said the 60-40 sharing scheme in favor of the Phlippines was “fair” enough since China would spend for the exploration.

“That’s the net because they will spend for all the extraction and all other things,” he said.

“(The) 60/40 (sharing scheme) is a desirable sharing, but it is not final. It could even go up to 61 or more. One percent is always substantial when you talk about such big investments,” Esperon said.

Esperon said the Philippines and China have already formed the joint steering committee to work on the deal.

“And shortly there will be talks with China in pursuance of the earlier memorandum of understanding that was signed in 2018 for the development of this energy fields,” Esperon said.

The Philippines and China have signed a memorandum of agreement on joint exploration for oil and gas in the West Philippines Sea during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.

In the same briefing, Esperon said the Philippine government is also lifting the moratorium on the conduct of maritime research surveys by foreign firms  in the country’s vast waters.

Esperon said that the sharing scheme is acceptable, and it may even increase to more than 60 percent, during negotiations.  The Malampaya project would be a good working sample for the next oil explorations.

“This is an altogether, a new agreement and a new process. But, it will look very similar to what you have now in the Malampaya, where you have corporations joining our own corporation,” he said.

According to Esperon, the Department of Foreign Affairs will be the chairman of the steering committee which counts the Departments of  Energy and of the Environment and Natural Resources, among others as members.

To illustrate that the Philippines can strike oil exploration agreements in other parts of the West Phlippine Sea, Esperon also cited that Forum Energy Ltd, contractor of the Service Contract 72 in the Reed Bank as “already being there.”

“They are already there, we are talking about the areas near Recto Bank and several of them are already there. Such as, Forum Oil. It’s participated in by Manuel Pangilinan,” he said.