Oil exploration at Tañon strait: Guv to back Japan oil firm's project

Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia yesterday told Department of Energy undersecretary Guillermo Balce and officials of the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd., or Japex, that she will support the firm's planned oil explorations and drilling at the Tañon Strait in the coming months.

Garcia, however, made clear that her support would only go once the firm secures an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Balce and Japex officials apprised the governor of the firm's activities over the Tañon Strait, which is part of the Visayan Basin and located between Cebu and Negros Oriental provinces.

Japex officials told the governor that the firm's seismic survey and other studies over Tañon Strait last December showed there is bright prospect of considerable deposits of oil and gas.

The project "would ultimately redound to the benefits of Cebu and the Cebuanos," agreed Garcia, but who said that it should be carried out in close coordination with the provincial government and other affected local government units.

There are currently four other oil explorations projects in the Visayan Basin (in Bohol Strait, and the seas off central Cebu, southern Cebu and northwestern Leyte) undertaken by other foreign firms but the DOE tapped Japex for the Tañon explorations.

The DOE also tapped Forum Explorations Inc. for similar undertakings in the seas off northern Cebu, which is still part of the Visayan Basin. The area and the Tañon Strait have been considered among the most promising areas for oil in the country, Balce said.

Last year, the DOE claimed that it had just discovered that the Visayan Basin, specifically the part located in northern Cebu, and the Tañon Strait have a petroleum resource potential of about one billion barrels. - Cristina C. Birondo