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Cebu City, Philippines – The Cebu Provincial Board has called on environment and energy officials to make sure that the planned oil and gas exploration off the coast of Argao town, southern Cebu, would not endanger the area’s marine resources.
“While this august body expresses its support toward attaining self-reliance on energy and oil products, it does so with due regard to the protection and preservation of our environment,” read a resolution the board passed on Monday.
Board Member Victor Maambong said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Energy (DOE) should make sure that the exploration is in accordance with the law.
Antonio Labios, director of DOE in Central Visayas, recently announced that NorAsian Energy Ltd. wanted to test the ground underneath the waters of Argao for commercial quantities of oil and natural gas.
Labios said the results of a seismic survey conducted in June last year in the Cebu Strait – between the islands of Cebu and Bohol – indicated a “promising structure where oil and gas might have been formed and accumulated.”
NorAsian Energy plans to start exploratory drilling before December.
Leonardo Siballuca, executive regional director of the DENR in Central Visayas, assured that proper consultations would be conducted before the project is issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate.
Siballuca said exploratory drilling is, in general, non-hazardous.
Despite assurances, Maambong said there was a need to make sure that environmental laws are not compromised.
Last year, the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. tested the Tañon Strait between Cebu and Negros islands for oil.
