MANILA — The Philippines will “find a way to move the process forward” in oil exploration projects in the West Philippine Sea as its negotiations with China floundered, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.

Despite three years of negotiations, talks on possible joint oil exploration deals with China “are still in a deadlock right now,” Marcos Jr. said in an interview with Japanese outlet NHK earlier this month.

“We have been in negotiations for over three years now, and have made very little progress,” he said.

“It’s still the official position of the Philippines that this is not in a conflict area. This is very clearly within our EEZ (exclusive economic zone). It is certainly within our baselines, within the maritime territory of the Philippines. So whatever it is that we will do in the future, it has to be consistent with that understanding,” he said.

In 2018, Manila and Beijing signed a joint memorandum of agreement to create a joint steering committee that would serve as an official negotiating forum for the 2 countries’ efforts to explore oil reserves and gas resources in the West Philippine Sea, particularly in Reed Bank, which falls within the Philippines EEZ.

The said panel only met once and “no agreement was reached during the said meeting,” the Department of Energy said in June 2022, after the Philippines pulled out from the negotiations following reports that Chinese ships harassed 2 survey vessels commissioned by Philippine energy companies.

In January, Marcos Jr. told Chinese President Xi Jinping that the Philippines would resume negotiations with China on joint oil and gas explorations in the West Philippine Sea, but relations between the two countries soured in recent months after Beijing’s use of water canons and lasers against Filipino vessels ferrying supplies to soldiers in the Ayungin Shoal.

• Marcos tells Xi: PH to continue joint exploration talks with China in West PH Sea

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Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio earlier urged the Philippine government to begin exploring at Reed Bank, warning that power prices rates in Luzon would be more expensive if the country loses resources at Reed Bank to China.

• Getting gas from Reed Bank a 'litmus test' for Marcos Jr: ex-SC justice Carpio

Reed Bank, also known as Recto Bank, is within the Philippine exclusive economic zone northwest of Palawan.

A 2013 report from the United States Energy Information Administration claimed Reed Bank could hold up to 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

• Philippine gov't urged to begin Reed Bank oil exploration

While Marcos Jr. did not mention if the Philippines was looking for a new oil exploration partner, but said that “it's imperative for the Philippines to find a way to move the process forward so as to be able to assure ourselves of a fuel supply during that transition period.”

• Marcos: Philippines needs to find ways for oil exploration despite China dispute 'roadblock'
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“We are hoping to grow the fuel supply because industrialization is almost directly dependent on the power supply and its pricing,” the President said.

“The supply of reliable, affordable power is always going to be critical, and it has been one of the problems that the Philippines has faced in terms of higher prices for power and a lack of supply,” he said.

Marcos Jr. — who has been pushing to establish more renewable energy sources in the Philippines — said that the country was looking to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) in its “transition from purely fossil fuels coal to a bigger mix of renewables.”

“I'm sorry to admit that the supply of LNG is becoming more and more important to the Philippines,” he said.

“The move to renewables, as we're all discovering, is not as easy as we had hoped. So we need a transition period to give ourselves time to bring the infrastructure in, to allow the technologies to develop,” he said.

In May, Marcos Jr. renewed a contract that allowed 2 oil giants to continue extracting natural gas from a portion of the Malampaya gas field for 15 more years and share profits with the government.

The agreement required contractors “to conduct a minimum work program consisting of geological and geophysical studies and the drilling of at least 2 deep water wells… from 2024 to 2029,” the Department of Energy had said.

• Marcos extends Malampaya gas field contract until 2039

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