Likely Philippines-China joint exploration for oil and/or natural gas in the South China Sea

A distinct likely prospect now is the signing next month of a Philippines-China framework agreement for joint exploration for hydrocarbons, for oil and/or natural gas, in the West Philippine

Sea, which will reduce or put an end to chances of conflict in the area.

The area of the waters within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone on the South China Sea has been renamed the West Philippine Sea.

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has been undertaking pragmatic diplomacy and hopes to visit Beijing in September most likely to sign an agreement to drill an exploration oil or gas well in the area, which we believe could lead to substantial hydrocarbon discoveries which will reduce Philippine dependence on our heavy imports of crude oil from Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf or Arab Gulf to the Arabs.

When we were speaker of the House of Representatives and founding chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in the year 2000, we accompanied then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on her first state visit to China, which coincided with the Third Biennial Conference of the ICAPP (now representing some 300 ruling, opposition, and independent political parties in Asia) held in Beijing. To take advantage of the happy occasion in the Chinese capital, we proposed to the president that we negotiate and sign a Joint Oil Seismic agreement with China in the South China Sea which she promptly approved, and together, we presented the idea to our host, the China President Hu Jintao, who heartily gave his approval.

After we left the Chinese president for another meeting, we thought of another potential winner, and proposed that we include the other claimant in the South China Sea, Vietnam, for a Tripartite Agreement. The Chinese president then smiled and gave his immediate assent, and then both Presidents Hu Jintao and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo turned around and looked at me, to undertake a special mission to convince the Vietnamese to be the third signatory, in what was to become a Tripartite Seismic Agreement. After another day in Beijing with wife Gina, then President Arroyo and the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo returned to Manila after a most successful visit to China.

After a quick check with our office in Congress, we hurriedly motored to the airport for our journey to Hanoi to convince the Vietnamese to co-sign what would become the Tripartite Seismic Agreement in the South China Sea.

We were not apprehensive of our Hanoi visit. While Vietnam was the third claimant of isles and areas in the South China Sea, obviously also for the area’s hydrocarbons, we were also of the belief that friendship in ASEAN and realpolitik would insure that Hanoi would co-sign a tripartite seismic pact.

In Hanoi, we met with both the past and the current Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) general secretary, Nguyeh Duc Manh and Nguyen Phu Throng, respectively, who are our old friends, and both actually higher in rank than Vietnam’s president or prime minister. We had the other good fortune that Vietnam’s capable deputy foreign minister was also a graduate of our De La Salle College, where we finished high school, and as with the Vietnam speaker, we were on first-name basis.

We went home with Vietnam’s agreement on the proposed tripartite Philippines-China-Vietnam venture, hopefully a precursor of the anticipated eventual common oil exploration and development agreement in the South China Sea. The costs of the detailed wide-ranging seismic survey in the Sea were to be jointly shared by the three governments.

The subsequent seismic survey findings indicated a number of attractive drillable structures, which could most likely bear hydrocarbons (oil and/or gas) below the sea, and which can only be tested by strategraphic tests — direct drilling by expensive exploration below the sea bed conducted by modern drill ships.

 

https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/08/19/likely-philippines-china-joint-exploration-for-oil-andor-natural-gas-in-the-south-china-sea/