Galoc Oil Field, Philippines... Crude Oil Reservoir
If an ordinary Filipino citizen will be told that the Philippines has now discovered crude oil within its territorial boundaries, then it would really appear to be good news amid the current world crisis. And yes, I must admit, I was happy enough to have watched the news yesterday, that indeed the commissioned explorer (a.k.a. exploiter) had discovered an oil reservoir in the island of Palawan. However, I was dismayed, when I realized that the Philippine Government had almost ceded its authority and control over the said oil field to different corporations that had explored it. Read equity division here.
As I quite remember broadly, the Philippine Government headed by our illustrious and in(famous) president, had made different contracts to different corporations around the world that permits exploitation of the said place to find oil. Now that these (Vitol Group and Otto Energy Ltd, Nido Petroleum Pty Ltd., Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp., Philodrill Corp., Forum Energy Philippines Corp., Alcorn Gold Resources Corp. and PetroEnergy Resources Corp.) companies had discovered what they had wanted, now what? Will it lower down oil prices in this country?
The answer to that according to ABS-CBN is simple it wouldn't lessen the current prices of the oil despite the oil field found in Galoc, since the oil prices will be based on the current price on the world market. The government can earn, yes, from royalties that will come from selling this oil, but the government will have no control whatsoever on its selling.
Now, imagine the scenario, your country own the raw product, but it will be sold to you by other countries at relatively high price. What an irony right?
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