More news from Fridays meeting with Japex President and local Phillipines press. Turns out the Japex General Manager was also on Cebu Island Friday.....together with the President of the Company.
The fishermen, Sibbaluca said, claimed to be unable to fish in the strait since the oil exploration, conducted by the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex), began.
“How can they be displaced when the oil drilling was conducted only 1.5 kilometers (in) radius (from the drilling platform)? I told them to file a complaint so that their claims will be investigated,” he said.
Sibbaluca defended the oil exploration, saying it complied with all requisites that were needed for the issuance of an Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC).
The environment official suggested that instead of attacking the project, critics should pray that the oil exploration resulted in good news so that the country would stop relying heavily on imported oil.
In a meeting between Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Japex officials last Friday, the governor was assured that no harm came to the marine environment during the two-month long exploratory drilling.
Mineo Konishita, president of Japex, told reporters that samples from the drilling were already being analyzed to determine if the oil under the strait was commercially viable.
Konishita said the analysis may take months. Japex would coordinate with energy officials in studying the samples, he said.
The Japex president said he was confident that there were oil and gas deposits of good quantities that may be tapped.
Shigehiro Moriya, Japex general manager, said he also believes that there was a big potential for commercially viable oil deposits under the Tañon Strait. But until the scientific analysis on samples is complete, nothing conclusive could be announced.
Moriya said the exploratory drilling reached its target depth of 3,200 meters on January 31.
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Note...very optimistic sounding Japex officals (conscious of strong environmental lobby group)....Japex used 200 tonnes of barite in the drill.....( normally used to reduce well pressure)
Such great news here for tiny $7.5 million company GGX. In view of this news, their oil/gas exploration leases on the mainland adjoining the Japex drill could be worth $30 or $40 million.
Note: that according to Japex, in the above story, they drilled within a 1500 meters radius of the platform. Would love to know in what direction.....1500 m in a arc north east to north west puts them on GGX leases (GGX have a small portion of off shore license adjoining this drill).Anyway just goes to suggest....it is likely they can produce the oil from onshore facilities.
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