The Philippines, faced with an approaching energy crunch and a maritime dispute with China overshadowing one of its biggest offshore gasfields, has outlined plans to invite oil and gas companies to develop 14 petroleum blocks elsewhere in the archipelago nation.
A Philippine official told the Financial Times that the government was planning a roadshow in the UK, the US and Singapore during the third quarter of this year to drum up investors’ interest in the blocks.
The Philippine oil sector has been largely overlooked because of the reputation it has earned for saddling energy companies with red tape. An unresolved dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea has prevented development of some of the country’s largest offshore gas reserves.