There's oil in them there islands!
Did you know that they have struck oil in the Philippines? It’s true, it happened 11 days ago, in an area west of Palawan Island. Currently, they are pumping between 18-20,000 barrels per day of what they are calling Palawan Light Crude. As far as I know, this was the first attempt at oil exploration in the Philippines, and it’s a success! Twenty thousand barrels per day is not a huge amount of oil, based on worldwide standards, but this is the first attempt at pumping oil in the Philippines, and that amount is nothing to sneeze at either!
Over the years, there has always been speculation that the Spratley Islands has oil reserves, but since the Spratleys have always been in contention between a number of countries, so far, nobody has even attempted to exploit the reserves there. For those of you who don’t know, the Spratleys are a group of over 100 islands, islets and reefs that are west of Palawan, and are currently claimed by The Philippines, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia. From time to time, each of these countries places a contingent of military troops on the islands to push it’s claim of soveriegnty. But, so far, nobody has been able to take sole control of the Spratleys. By the way, the Philippines calls the Island group the “Scarorough Reef.”
But the Philippines is not drilling in the disputed area, it is actually just drilling within undisputed Philippine waters, in that general area. Right now, the goal of the Philippine government is to become 60% energy independent by the end of 2010. Imagine, if things like wind power, solar and hydro power were added to the mix, I firmly believe that the Philippines cold be at least 80% energy independent within 5 to 10 years (provided that the oil fields continue production over this amount of time).
In addition to the current oil production, and the Spratley Islands possible future production, ExxonMobil is expected to start doing some drilling in the Southern Philippines by mid-2009 as well, although I do not know the exact location.
One thing that kind of surprises me is that this discovery of oil, and the ongoing production seems to be rather low-profile! It would seem that the Philippines would be playing this up and “making hay” with it. Good publicity is always a good thing, and it would seem that the country could really get some good publicity from this event.
The first shipment of oil from Palawan is expected in Manila in the first week of November. Perhaps when it is delivered there will be a big publicity event. I would imagine that the President will be there to meet the first oil tanker arriving in the Nation’s Capital. Wouldn’t you if you were President?
With these kinds of activities already becoming an reality, can you foresee the day when the Philippines could become an oil exporting country? Can you imagine the Philippines actually becoming a wealthy nation? How would that affect your plans to live here? It would make the place an expensive part of the world to live in. Personally, I don’t think that will happen, but with the current success near Palawan, I am quite excited that the Philippines could be looking at a real plus for it’s economy, and a success, which is something that is rare here, it seems.
Hi Teng- I think that our views are pretty closely aligned. My primary concern would be environmental, but I think that can be kept safe. I hope that it can all have a positive impact on the Philippines.
The Philippines is rich in natural resources – Copper, steel, Gold, Oil, and an English speaking population. Unfortunately it is not the Filipino people that benefit from these. Mining and drilling rights (also the now expired parity rights for the US) are always sold to foreign nations like China. There is no reason for the Filipino people to be poor. Remove corruption and you can really see a wealthy country. The distribution of wealth is top heavy. We need Obama to ran for Philippine presidency instead of the US. It’s good for the Filipinos if he spreads the wealth there instead.
Hi Bobby- Yes, the Philippines really is resource rich. I am not one who generally likes “spreading the wealth” around, but in many ways, it seems that something along those lines is needed in the Philippines.
better turn the air con up …way up Bob !!!!
………say what about that hockey game last nite guys???????
PS about 10 yrs ago I was in the RP, had heard about Yashitos gold being found in the RP ect …thought it was a nice “story”. I was with a buddy of mine who ran a dive shop, this canadian girl was taking lessons there…we meet her father a few days later at the Hyatt (maybe marriot i can’t recall the exact name of hotel) in Manila on the bay overlooking bataan pnsl..(..he had been lodging at the Hyatt Penthouse for several months…paid for by one of the politicians…he was highly educated and was there to assist in finding the gold which he said during dinner he had found some of it and was looking for more. I asked if this was a govt. sponsored endevor…he avoided the answer…which indirectly answered it for me.
Hi brian- I thought that over the past few hours it has cooled down quite a bit!
Hi brian- Ah yes… there are so many tales of Yamashita’s Gold… it is hard to keep up with them all!
Been a long day. I ask you this in only the kindest of ways. You obviously love the Philippines very much and have made it your home for life.For the short amount of time I have been on this blog you write great and interesting stuuf but it always seems from the positive side of things. Many of us are new visiting or living here and see a country full of huge problems and complexities. Of course many good things as well. I am just wondering if you ever leave the country for a month or so each year to take I guess if you will call it a vacation. I always leave wherever I happen to be living for a vacation to have fun somewhere else and when I go back home I feel so lucky to be back or I have some reservations about things due to something that opened my eyes elsewhere. The ability to be more objective about things and erhaps learn something that helps me become better or not.
Sometimes when I go to Europe I see how barbaric and uncultured America can be and how unhappy people are there for the most part despite all they have. Of course Europe has its faults as well. But I like to go there for that cultural element for sure.
I personally find the Philippines very challenging and have not yet decided to stay here permanently or not. Environmental destruction is a primary reason and massive corruption is another. I might like to here your viewpoints in this blog on some of those issues. Also about the vacations. thanks lots….
Hi richard- No problem on the questions, I don’t find it mean or offensive at all. Actually, if you think that I only write positive things about the Philippines, hang around and read more. Go back in the archives, I have written a lot of things that I see in the Philippines that are negative, and need to be changed. Sometimes I get raked over the coals by readers for being too negative. That said, I would agree that lately, I’ve been writing mostly positive observations about the Philippines, I guess I’ve just been in a good mood, and not experiencing too much negative stuff. Last night, I had a rather negative thing happen at a place where I visited, and I may write about that, haven’t decided yet.
I have lived in the Philippines for about 8 1/2 years now, and in that time I have never left the country. I really don’t have much desire to go back to the USA where I am from. I do travel a lot, but mostly in Mindanao right now. I have visited every province on the Island of Mindanao, and I love it. I will expand out and visit the Visayas and Luzon in years to come. Before moving to the Philippines, I have traveled much of the world, so it could not be said that I have been isolated or un-traveled. I lived in Africa, the USA and the Philippines. I have traveled to Europe too. Right now, I am having a very good time discovering the Philippines, though, and for every bit that I discover, I find that there is a lot more to visit too.
Believe me (go back and read the archives) I have blogged about many serious challenges of living in the Philippines. But, when I have covered those things so many times, it is hard to re-write the same experiences too many times, and sometimes readers tend to get upset if I repeat articles about the same experiences to much.
Please be aware that it is not easy for a foreigner living here to blog about massive corruption, especially to relay things we have seen or experienced. If I blogged about that, I would probably be deported pretty hastily. If you haven’t lived in a place like the Philippines, it may be hard for you to understand that. But, it is reality, and foreigners get deported from here every day for less. My viewpoint about corruption is that I don’t like it, but don’t expect me to go into detail about it, because I live here, and I want to continue living here.
I have also written extensively on this site about my many trips around the Island of Mindanao.
Hi Bob. I agree with you on the energy independence phrase.
The wealth accumulation part is probably controversial because as we all know the price of oil is not controlled by any one entity but by world markets. Any country that sell oil locally at lower price (even locally-produced oil) than what’s the world markets dictate just invite trouble later. The Philippines has other better avenues in producing weatlh other than oil productiion.
The Philippines is I think at the right track with proliferation of ‘green’ sources of energy and partnering with other countries to do this (Germany, Spain, France, etc). There is really a possibility to be energy independent in intraland use. Nuclear should be part of the mix.
In the immediate and the distant future though, the Philippines need oil for interisland transport. But that should be a very miniscule amount hopefully in the future.
Then again oil dropped to $67.90/barrel just right now…..it’s a wonderful world….it’s full of wonders.
If the Philippines were able to find a significant amount of oil, it would help the country’s international trade balance. However, I fear this kind of weath would be a burden on the common people due to inflation. Politicians in a corrupt country all have their greedy hands out and tend to spihon off most of the prosperity. Oil wealth causes prices to rise but the ability of the poor to purchase commodities remains the same. Nigeria is a classic example of what happens when oil wealth is improperly distributed.
WoW!! Interesting, and provocative discussions! I just hope this oil discovery will not have the same environmental impact as what happened to my Island Marinduque due to the mining industry. My 2 cents worth-it will have a minor positive effect on the Philippine economy short term, but long term will hopefully be more positive, if oil explorations continues in other parts of the islands. Cheers to ALL and Happy Discussions!!
Hi Bob,
” If my fairy god mother wil grant me one wish, it will be to eradicate/abolished/phase out all those dirty TRAPOS(politician) who have nothing else to do in the govt but use the countries money/people for their own/familys prosperity.and it should start from the very very top. AMEN
Hi Dr. Sponk Long- I agree that the Philippines will not get wealthy from this, unless it happens that a lot more oil is discovered. I mostly asked that question to see what others would say. I agree that a real mix of energy sources is needed for the Philippines.
Hi David S.- It likely would indeed be inflationary. In some places, though… for example, Alaska, the people get direct payments from the government’s oil revenues. Something like that could be really good for the Philippine people.
Hi David B Katague- mining has also been a scourge on the Mindanao environment,a nd I sure hope that the discovery of oil would not follow the mining example!
Hi CRIS- I’m with you, my friend.
Bob,with regard to stories about Yamashitas gold we have another plan announced to bring riches to the Philippines – the raising of the Japanese battleship Musashi – I understand a Swiss company of all things has offered to salvage the ship to make it a tourist attraction! In my country this would be regarded as a war grave and could not be disturbed.It weighs 70000 tons and is in 1300 metres of water, nothing like this has ever been done and I am sure the Swiss company would be glad to spend lots of other peoples money to prove it cannot be done. Why do absolutely farcical schemes get taken seriously in the Philippines when they would be a cause of laughter elsewhere?
Hope to be back in Manila soon – health is almost back to normal.
Bryan G.
Hi Bryan Gallacher- Haha… somehow I am not surprised! Seen too many of these kind of things to be surprised anymore! Thanks for sharing this, and good luck in Manila!
My apologies for mentioning two political figures. A mistake I regret making. My thoughts on our world’s dependence on fossil fuels transcend any political party’s candidates and policies and I apolofize to any whom I have offended. This has nothing to do with any election and I erred in bringing that subject up .My bad.
I am bemoaning the fact that _no_ party in any country I am aware of seems to have thought the energy issue through very well.
Bob I never said we would or even coluld stop using oil today. We of course can’t stop using oil today or tomorrow.
What I said, and what I mean to say is unchanged. We need to start using and promoting alternative sources now, not advocating and even applauding more drilling, which is last century’s :”solution”.
Can we stop using oil today? But can we stop exploring and drilling for more oil today? Absolutely. Why increase the supply of what we all know is no good for us in the long run?
The practice of drilling new fields in any area is dumb. Again, think of my alcoholic and vodka example. Did you have trouble filling up either of your vehicles the last time you needed fuel? Of course not. OPEC is whining at the moment because oil prices have crashed … there’s no shortage of oil, there’s a oil glut
So while we still have abundant oil reserves … remember I didn’t say cheap … … but abundance means you pull up to the pump any time you want to and use as much as you want to … which is currently the case virtually world-wide.
Anyway, while we are blessd with ‘all we can eat’,for the short term, why would any nation who is forward thinking not put their resources into the first steps of getting off the “oil nipple”?
Anyone who has raised a child ior done much sales or personnel work knows the simple fact that people will do what they are rewarded for doing. They will also learn and change behavior away from what they recieve “negative rewards’ for.
To me the equation is pretty simple, although the task is not. Getting off fossil fuel is not a simple journey, nor a short one. There are variables and imponderables none of us can see for certain. But I can say one thing for certain … we won’t get anywhere on the journey and if we don’t start walking, in the right direction.
Drilling for new oil … anywhere and by any regime, party, commercial entity or even an NGO is essentially the wrong thing to do.
Just as one example, and it is most appropriate here. if the Philippine government had spent the same amount of money on geothermal electric generation for Palawan … as has already been proposed and engineered, and already works great for Leyte, Cebu and even a part of Luzon, wouldn’t we be miles and miles ahead of yet another oil field contributing toward going backward on the journey?
Rewarding bad behavior is wrong, no matter which country may benefit, short-term. In the long run we all lose.
Hi Dave- Maybe you were taking poetic license with your comment, but you did specifically say that tomorrow is too late. As a matter of fact, you went further and said that we have to get off fossil fuels “this minute”. I just took you at what you said.
For somebody like the Philippines to drill for oil within their borders is not, in my opinion, dumb. It means that they will have less reason to buy oil from OPEC, and can fulfill at least part of their own needs.
Good morning from Spain, Bob. I’m back and read all comments re oil discovery
in the Philippines and how the government has downplayed its discovery. But,
Bob, that’s typical of Filipinos. They do not get overjoyed. They have become fatalistic and realistic as well as cynical. But that’s not a bad t hing since too much
optimism can spoil things. Anyway, I just thought I’d say hello and so sorry to know that you had a stroke. Hoe you are a lot better. As for you being there,
what would Davao be without you? People have got used to Bob Mindanao.
Your presence is part and parcel of the new Davao.
Anyway, the different comments make very good reading. Indeed, corruption exists in every country of this globe. Spain, Belgium, Portugal, etc have their
own corrupt ways. In Marbella, our former mayor and his cohorts were arrested
and jailed. This mayor has just been recently released. Other town mayors up
and down the country have also been arrested and put to jail. The height of
corruption in Spain happened in 1986, when they joined the EU. There was construction boom all over the country, and with this form of development,
corruption became the norm. No, sir, corruption does exist in Europe except
that the media here do not, I repeat, do not play it up. Somehow, turning a blind
eye would be better for everyone. Spain has always been a corrupt society. I
should know, I’ve been living here for the past 28years. As for USA, of course
it is corrupt.Is there corruption in the UK? Naturally. Let’s not be naive about corruption. Where there is greed, corruption in any level exists. It is greed that
makes people corrupt, and this has nothing to do with culture.
Mabuhay! See you later…
On Michael’s comment re unskilled workers on oil rigs:
Norway is a world oil producer. And are the people they hire? Filipinos. Why,
because they are skilled, hardworking, easy to communicate and work with.
Just a couple of months ago, the Norwegian Ambassador and the local government inaugurated a condotel in Malate, specifically for Filipino seamen
and oil rig workers. Why? Because the Norwegian government sees it to be
the right thing to do because it is well deserved. They know that the country is geographically separated from each other, being more than 7,000 islands, h ence, travelling up and down the archipelago would require a lot of hassle, time, effort, money, and the difficulty of finding lodgings. How can Michael say that oil rigs should only be manned by “white” expats—although he didn’t actually blatantly say out loud. Perhaps, he can get a damn good idea from the Norwegians themselves because if truth be told, they will openly say that hiring Filipinos is the next best thing to beer-swooshing, swerling, loud expats. I should know. I live in Europe, hehehe. I know how these guys really, really get drunk. And what about European pilots? They have a long record of piloting commercial planes drunk, or have already been drinking before setting offf!!
Now for the oil find in the Philippines,, congratulations! Better late than later. Comments do tend to be biased especially coming from Euro-expats, but that’s healthy. Then, those in the know can rectify some of the alge-old ideas about the
misconstrued and misunderstood Philippines.
Questionis; Who would like to live in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nairobi, Lagos? Would you rather live in those places where danger lurks everywhere you go/ believe me, these are the places that you, expats should be afraid of…Or perhaps, Riyadh, Jeddah, Aden in Yemen? Have you thought of living in these places? Even Jakarta? Whew. These places are not registered in your set-minds,
but believe me, these are untouchable places,to live in—that is.
The Philipines, forever misconstrued and misunderstood, is really a haven–in many, many ways. And if I had won a million pounds in the national lottery, I would simply pack it in and go back to the Philippines.Now, that would be
really, really magnificent!
Hi hill roberts- Thank you very much for your kind words. Frankly, your first paragraph stunned me!
Re BrSpiritus comment: “Ignorance is bliss…” of course, he doesn’t know that the oldest oil refinery in Asia can be found–where else? The Philippines.
The oldest unversity in Asia, where else/ The Philippines. The oldest COMMERCIAL airline in Asia? The Philippines. ~The oldest Stock Exchange in Asia? The Philippines. The first metro introduced in Southeast Asia? The Philippines. The first basketball association established in Asia? The Philippines
The Philippines has many “firsts”. Oh, by the way, who invented yoyo and the word itself/ The Filipinos—ahahhhh! Where was urban planning first established
in Asia? The Philippines. Which hotel in Asia started refrigeration? Manila Hotel, the Philippines. Mr Spiritus, before you show how ignorant your comment or idea is about the Philippines, do some research first. The first paeditrician in Asia recognissed worldwide came from: The Philippines of course. The first Heart Center in Asia found in the Philippines of course. The First Lung CEnter in Asia–the Philippines! The first to establish MBA institution in Asia? The Philippines!
The first eye, ear, nose medical institution in Asia? The Philippines! So, how dare
you say that country , if they open their “first” (your comment” refinery will blow up the whole archipelago is not just idiotic but downright rude and ignorant. So, before you open your mouth, dear blogger, do some research. OK?
Other Philippine “firsts”- Philippine International Convention Center–first in Asia;
The First Kidney Center in Asia established here;in the Philippines
PICC as it is called, was even copied by some of Spain’s towns.
Singapore and Thailand or even Malaysia came very late into being. I do not know
why Vietnam has even stolen the brand of “Pear of the Orient Seas”–they are not the pear of the…that brand or tag has always belonged to the Philippines. For other trivia re Philipines, the DOT has this WOW Trivia which would help non-Pinoys to get to know more about the country.So, dear bloggers, please do not
be wary of the Philippines, it has so many things to offer, it is rich in diversity,
above all, you can do what you like there without hindrance or impediment, for as long as it isn’t “violent”—naturally. Enjoy.
Hi hill roberts- Don’t go too hard on BrSpiritus, he is a nice guy, and means well for the Philippines. Personally, I didn’t find what he said offensive, and I am certain that he didn’t mean it that way. I can see that it rubbed you the wrong way, and I am sensitive to your feelings too. For now, keep an eye on BrSpiritus’ comments and judge his intentions over time, I am sure that you will find that he is a supporter of the Philippines, generally.
Take care!