5 ongoing seismic surveys for oil deposits
in Cebu “very encouraging,” DOE says
By Fayette C. Riñen
CEBU CITY, Oct. 12 (PIA) – A top energy official said the ongoing seismic survey of five service contracts in Cebu for the exploration of oil is “very encouraging.”
Department of Energy - Energy Resource Development Bureau (DOE-ERDB) Director Ismael Ocampo said the prospects of the ongoing seismic survey for oil deposits in Cebu looks positive but drilling still has to be done to be really certain that the quantity would be of commercial volume.
Ocampo cannot give a timeline as to when such service contract operations can yield results that the oil deposits are commercially viable for production.
“You know this takes time and before drilling operations can be done, the service contractor needs to conduct test usually seismic survey to make sure that the area can yield a commercial volume of oil deposits,” according to Ocampo during the weekly Kapihan sa PIA this morning that tackled the status updates on energy projects in Cebu including oil exploration activities.
Just recently, Chinese firm China International Mining Petroleum Company Ltd., one of the service contractors, bared it would start the remote sensing study, shore seismic data acquisition and drilling in the town of Alegria in southern Cebu. Some areas in Alegria including the mountain barangay of Monteller and the coastal barangay of Madridejos showed that black liquid bubbled out from the soil which locals used the soaked dirt to build fire for cooking and light, this is reported.
Ocampo also said there is one in Aloguinsan town in southern Cebu but that continuous seismic study is further done before drilling operations can begin to ensure that large oil deposits really exists.
“Even the city of Bogo has been found to have a deposit of natural gas which can produce 1.3 MW of power which is quite significant already,” Ocampo said but added that it would probably take five to six years before production can be commercially tapped.
The DOE official said their agency is gearing for an aggressive campaign on energy-related projects including oil explorations within domestic shores, exploiting renewable energy sources and alternative fuels with the end-goal of attaining energy self-sufficiency and stability.
“We need to increase our oil production with the rising cost of fuel in the global market which we are helpless because we are totally dependent on imported fuel,” Ocampo declared.
Ocampo said the Philippines imports 300,000 barrels of fuel per day as its local production is only 6,500 barrels/day. “Ninety-nine percent of our fuel needs is sourced outside,” the DOE official ended