By Alex Villanueva
PNA
The Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in Spratlys off South China Sea is believed to be sitting on top of what could be the
largest oil and natural gas deposits in the world, and holds one of the four largest hydrocarbon concentrations.
It could be able to generate 17.1 billion barrels of oil, more than Kuwait's 13 billion barrels based on the report of China’s Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources.
This was revealed by Jose Antonio Socrates, a known geologist here who is consultant of Palawan on maritime affairs.
Socrates, also a doctor of orthopedics, is actively monitoring KIG and the Malampaya oil project in northern Palawan.
The KIG is the subject of territorial claims by six Asian countries including the Philippines. But with the signing of Presidential Decree 1596 in 1978 by then President Ferdinand Marcos, the territory was incorporated within the jurisdiction of the province to strengthen the country’s claim over the area.
Aside from the Philippines, Brunei, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the KIG in part or as a whole.
All claimant countries believe there are some 200 billion barrels of oil, natural gas, minerals and polymetals — such as gold, silver, iron and nickel — under the sea surrounding the Spratlys.
One of the oil prospects in the KIG Socrates mentioned is the Marantao Petroleum Fields, located in the South Palawan Shelf-Reed Sedimentary Basin.
The Marantao prospect is a carbonate build-up (reef) interpreted to be at least five times larger than the Malampaya gas project.
The potential oil reserve in Marantao that is under Service Contract 55 is estimated at one billion barrels. Malampaya only has an estimated 2.5 million cubic feet of natural gas reserves, and 85 million barrels of condensate which could provide 2,700 megawatts of electricity to Luzon for 20 years.
Socrates further disclosed that aside from Marantao, KIG could be hosting other prospects like Sirinao, Bajallanura, and a string of other structures collectively known as the Rizal Leads.
These structures, or areas where possible oil and gas deposits can be located, lie along the giant petroleum fields offshore Borneo up to Mindoro in the continental shelf of the eastern coast of the South China Sea.
Socrates reported that that continental shelf of the South China Sea has geological structures that can trap oil in large quantities.
Meanwhile, Malampaya is just one of many petroleum deposits of one vast reservoir rock formation offshore both east side and west side of the province.
There are 15 service contracts within Palawan covering an area measuring about 11.85 million hectares.
Some of the service contracts (SC) in Palawan are: SC 50, which covers 128,000 hectares in Northwestern Palawan; SC 55 covering 900,000 hectares in West Palawan; SC 61 covering 1.3 million hectares in northeastern Palawan; SC 62 covering 1.3 million hectares in southeastern Palawan; SC 67 covering 648 million hectares in eastern Palawan, SC 68 covering 983,000 hectares in eastern Palawan; SC 59, which covers 1.47 million hectares in West Balabac in southwestern Palawan; and SC 63 covering one million hectares in southwestern Palawan.
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