BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi - The provincial government of Tawi-Tawi is apparently blind on the benefits they would get from the oil drilling exploration in the province which started on October 2009 by the US-based ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V. As this developed, Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali said the Department of Energy (DoE) allegedly failed to spell out to his government the benefits they would get when oil and other minerals would be extracted from the province by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V. "DoE has failed to inform us the benefits that the province and our people here would get when oil would be extracted in Mapun," Sahali claimed.
"I think it is our right also to know, what we can get from ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V. once they will extract oil in the area," he lamented. Sahali admitted to have felt partly insulted that he was not furnished with a copy of the contract entered into by the DoE and the exploration company, being the host province. "Definitely there is a contract between the national government and ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V. and it spelled out the many benefits that the country and the host province and town would get. But the problem, we don't know the content of the contract if it is also beneficial to our people here in the province," Sahali claimed.
"The issue of benefits for our people of Tawi-Tawi is so vital that we cannot afford to let it pass without explanation and clarification from the DoE and ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V.," he said. ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V. has recently completed drilling the third well, Palendag-1A, it started on June 7 this year, and encountered gas and is now drilling the fourth exploration well using the same West Aquarius drilling rig, Babendil-1, to a total depth of 4,531 meters (14,865 feet) under SC-56. Energy Secretary Rene Almendras said the firm is now studying the data it gathered with the completion of its third well drilling under the DoE-SC-56, located southeast of Mapun - northeast of Taganak and southwest of Turtle Island. Almendras said that drilling operations in SC-56 started in October 2009. The first well, Dabakan-1, encountered gas. Exxon Mobil completed drilling its second well last February and the third was completed in July this year.
