By SAMMY JULIAN
Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA — The government’s decision to extend Forum Energy’s permit to conduct oil drilling at the Recto (Reed) Bank will not affect the case it filed challenging China’s territorial claims over West Philippine Sea.
Recto Bank is part of the Philippine continental shelf, thus, the country has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over it, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Charles Jose told reporters.
“I’m not sure whether the Recto Bank is one of the features mentioned in the arbitration. I think not,” Jose said. “Otherwise, we won’t be giving out this service contract.”
He noted that Recto Bank is not an island or a low tide elevation; it is rather a completely submerged bank that is part of the continental margin of Palawan.
Recto Bank is about 85 nautical miles from the nearest coast of Palawan and about 595 nautical miles from the coast of Hainan.
It forms part of the 200 nautical miles continental shelf of the Philippine archipelago under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), Jose said.
In accordance with UNCLOS, the Philippines has the exclusive sovereign rights over the Recto Bank, he pointed out.
“No other state is lawfully entitled to assert sovereignty or sovereign rights over the said area,” Jose said. “So with the bidding out of the service contract we are just exercising our sovereign rights over [Recto] Bank.”
China earlier criticized the Philippines for extending the permit of Forum Energy to conduct oil drilling activities in the disputed West Philippine Sea.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei asserted in a media conference in Beijing that China “has indisputable sovereignty” over the Nansha Islands (Chinese name for the Spratlys), as well as its adjacent land features and waters, including Recto Bank.
Forum Energy is a London-based listed oil and gas exploration firm focused on the Philippines. It is 64.45-percent owned by Philex Petroleum Corp., headed by Filipino businessman Manny Pangilinan.
Hong said, “Without permission from China, oil and gas exploration by any foreign companies in waters under China’s jurisdiction is illegal and invalid.”
He was reacting to a statement issued by Forum Energy PLC, which on July 9 confirmed that the Department of Energy “has granted the company’s request for an extension to the second sub-phase of Service Contract 72 (SC72).”
SC72 covers an 8,800-square-kilometer area in Recto Bank.
Seismic surveys indicate that Recto Bank is rich in oil and gas deposits, but they have only been partly tapped due to disputed claims from various countries.
Exploration in the area began in 1970, and gas was discovered in 1976 in the Sampaguita structure following the drilling of a well. To date, a total of three wells have been drilled, all at the southwest end of the Sampaguita structure.
The initial two-year concession to extract the resources (SC72, formerly GSEC101) was awarded to Sterling Energy PLC in June 2002. In April 2005, Forum Energy acquired the concession from Sterling and became its operator.
DFA has nothing to do with the extension of the drilling contract, Jose said. “We are not aware of the considerations that went in their deliberation or decision to extend the contract.”/PN
