MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday he was open to talks with Beijing on energy exploration in the South China Sea, as he declared a state of emergency over fuel supplies in the wake of the Iran war.
The US and Israeli attacks on Iran, which started on Feb. 28, have caused the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which most of Asia’s energy supply transits.
The Philippines depends almost entirely on the Middle East for its crude oil imports. It has about 45 days of fuel supply at current consumption levels, according to Department of Energy estimates.
“The Secretary of Energy has determined that the foregoing circumstances pose an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply and that urgent measures are necessary to ensure the stability and adequacy of the country’s supply,” Marcos said in the energy emergency declaration, which will remain in effect for one year.
“A state of national energy emergency is hereby declared in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.”
The Middle East war has also brought about the possibility of reviving energy cooperation plans between the Philippines and China in their shared, resource-rich waterways.
In Tuesday’s interview with Bloomberg, the president said that while territorial disputes were “getting in the way,” the current situation in the Middle East might prompt both sides to seek an agreement.
“That’s something we are exploring. Everything that might be of help, we are certainly pursuing,” he said.
The cooperation was initially discussed in 2018 during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, when the two countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental steering committee for the possible joint exploration of oil and gas in the South China Sea.
The agreement was widely criticized as it considered cooperation in disputed waters within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone, as well as in areas solely under Philippine jurisdiction. In 2022, the Duterte administration terminated the talks, citing sovereignty concerns.
The resumption of talks was raised after Marcos took office and visited Beijing in early 2023, but there has been no official follow-up since.
Data from the US Geological Survey shows that the disputed territory may contain significant deposits of hydrocarbons.
In 2013, a US Energy Information Administration report estimated that the Reed Bank in the West Philippine Sea could hold up to 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
