PXP Energy Corp. is in talks with another Chinese state-owned company for a possible joint cooperation in the West Philippine Sea, a top executive said Monday night.
PXP chairman Manuel Pangilinan said the meeting was held two months ago at an undisclosed location. He said the talks were not with China National Offshore Oil Corp., with which the company was previously negotiating with for a possible partnership.
PXP and subsidiary Forum Energy Plc coordinated with the government on the resumption of oil and gas exploration activities in Service Contract 75 and SC 72 (Recto Block).
Both SCs are located in the disputed West Philippine Sea and are under force majeure since April.
“Can you escape G2G [government to government]? We don’t have the authority to talk about sovereignty issues. It’s only the state,” he said.
“Why are we walking on eggshells because when we talk about sovereignty, it’s them and we need to respect that,” he said.
Pangilinan said the Philippines could learn lessons from the dispute between Lebanon and Israel.
“What they did was cut the disputed territory by half. They were driven by the mutual interest of supplying gas to Europe, since they are one of the closest sources of gas,” he said.
“Instead of quarreling forever who owns which, they said cut the baby into half and develop it quickly so they could sell to Europe. That’s a pragmatic approach,” he said.
PXP earlier said they would continue to pursue exploration works on other projects in the Philippines, including SC 40 and SC 74.
PXP is an upstream oil and gas company incorporated in the Philippines with shares listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
