State-owned PNOC Exploration Corp. reported a 16-percent growth in net profit in the first nine months to P958.969 million from P825.4 million in the same period last year.
PNOC Exploration said revenues increased 6 percent in January to September to P3.117 billion from P2.937 billion a year ago, on higher oil prices.
The oil and gas arm of Philippine National Oil Co. derives bulk of its revenues from a 10-percent share in the Malampaya-gas-to-power project in northwest Palawan.
The company’s total assets hit P16.3 billion as of end-September, versus total liabilities of P2.966 billion and total equity of P13.338 billion.
PNOC remitted P520.52 million in dividends in July covering fiscal year 2016 as a part of its commitment to support national development initiatives.
This was in compliance with Republic Act 7656 and its revised implementing rules and regulations which direct all government-owned and controlled corporations to “declare and remit at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings such as cash, stock or property dividends to the national government.”
The company was unable to pursue other exploration projects due To Executive Order 556 requiring the company to conduct a bidding on oil and gas exploration ventures.
EO 556 mandated government corporations engaged in the upstream and downstream oil industries to conduct public bidding in farm-in or farm-out agreements.
“This has been our major stumbling block simply because oil exploration is a very expensive business, high risk and it would be absurd for us to ask would-be investors or partners to undergo public hearing,” PNOC Exploration president Pedro Aquino said earlier.
He said PNOC Exploration was “finding it difficult to comply” with the EO which was issued in 2006.
Aquino said the company followed the ruling and bid out service contract 37 in Isabela but no investor was interested.
“We have about eight service contracts. We want to share the risk because even the big companies like Shell, they resort to farm-out to spread the risk… Nobody wants to undergo public bidding just to participate,” he said.
Aquino said the prospect of finding oil and gas in the Philippines was very low and that investors wanted to take in more partners to spread the risk.
He said the standard procedure prior to the issuance of the EO was simply to talk to the company and have the board and the Energy Department approve the transaction.