MANILA – A China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel tailed two ships hired by a Philippine-based firm to do a seismic survey in the West Philippine Sea earlier this month, Vietnamese maritime observer Duan Dang wrote last week in his newsletter South China Sea Brief.
Ship tracking data suggested that CCG vessel 4201 shadowed survey ship Geo Coral and its support vessel Mariska G in northwest Palawan where Service Contract (SC) 75 is located.
SC 75, which covers 6,160 square kilometers in the offshore northwest Palawan Basin, is operated by PXP Energy Corp., formerly Philex Petroleum Corp, which hired the two ships.
A Philippine government official confirmed the SC 75 incident to the Inquirer on the condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity.
The source said the CCG vessel monitored Geo Coral and Mariska G at SC 75 starting on April 4 but kept its distance and did not interfere with their activities until the ships left for El Nido on April 6. This was after the Department of Energy (DOE) suspended oil exploration activities in the area until the security cluster issues the “necessary clearance to proceed.”
PXP Energy in February announced plans to conduct a 3D seismic survey at SC 75, and to drill two appraisal wells over SC 72 at the resource-rich Recto (Reed) Bank through its subsidiary, Forum Energy Ltd.
SC 72, operated by Forum, spans 8,800 sq km of Recto Bank, located west of Palawan and southwest of the depleting Malampaya gas field. It is the site of the Sampaguita gas field, which is estimated to contain 2.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to PXP.
Both SC 75 and SC 72 are within the country’s exclusive economic zone, where the Philippines has sovereign or exclusive rights to exploit and explore resources (Frances Mangosing ©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2022)
