HONOLULU, Hawaii (VIA PLDT) – President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III yesterday announced here before a crowd of chief executive officers that an unidentified company is planning to begin developing a newly discovered site in the northern part of the Philippines containing gas deposits bigger than the Malampaya oil fields in Palawan.

During the business forum moderated by Diane Brady, senior editor of Bloomberg, President Aquino said the new site will dwarf the reported substantial Malampaya oil source.

“There are substantial gas deposits that we believe will dwarf the existing Malampaya oil fields,” said President Aquino.

The business forum with theme Commodity Security for Economic Growth held at the Sheraton Waikiki here was attended mostly by Chinese nationals whose government has been engaged in a squabble with the country over territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.

The event was part one of the activities of the on-going 19th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting.

But President Aquino failed to identify the site, except to say that “there is a new field that is gonna be brought up, or is gonna start I understand by next year (2012) by an American company in the northern portion of the Philippines.” 

However, he hinted that the explorations in the new site may not be that simple because of the territorial concerns like that over the exclusive 200-mile zone, where the Philippines should have unbridled access.

“Some of them are in areas that are part of the contentious disputes as to the sovereignty over the same and we are working on steps to determine if they actually own them consistent with United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea,” President Aquino stressed.

The Malampaya project employs state-of-the-art deepwater technology to draw natural gas from deep beneath Philippine waters.

It was learned that the Philippines has been importing less fuel for power generation, providing the country foreign-exchange savings and energy security from this clean fuel since October 2001.

Natural gas has the least CO2 among fossil fuels and is more efficient than other sources of power like coal and crude oil.

The President said the Philippines will not have a shortage in its energy requirements.

“We have a very vibrant renewable energy sector. At the end of the day, the first phases, the abundance of electrical supply then we have wholesale electronic spot market that is supposed to induce competition that will bring down the rates,” he said.

He also stressed that he is determined to make power rates “more reasonable” and that they are also in the process of making the country’s transport sector less dependent on diesel, and use natural gas instead. 

“We have these resources that will benefit not only our country but also the neighbors in the region, and will transform our energy needs from dependence on Middle East to the present time to more indigenous sources,” he said.