Philippine Island News

U.S. oil major Chevron has completed the exit from the Shell-operated Malampaya gas project offshore the Philippines with the sale of its 45% non-operating interest in the field to Udenna Corporation. The sale deal was signed in October 2019.The Malampaya natural gas field lies about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the Philippine island of Palawan. Net daily production during 2019 averaged 136 million cubic feet of natural gas and 3,000 barrels of condensate.Produced from fields at water depths of about 2…

Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Thursday accused China of breaking a U.S.-brokered deal between the two nations on the Scarborough Shoal, an uninhabited rocky outcrop in the South China Sea. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines also claim the waterway, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne goods pass every year. Beijing seized control of Scarborough Shoal, near the main Philippine island of Luzon, in June 2012, following a three-month standoff after a Philippine Navy vessel tried to arrest Chinese fishermen found illegally hauling giant clams there.

Philippine military will soon build naval base on the country’s western coastline, opposite the disputed Spratly islands, Reuters reported Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. as saying. "We feel this is the number one priority because of the emerging security situation. As soon as we have the money, we will pour resources there,” he said. He said once they finished the facility at Oyster Bay on the country’s island of Palawan, they will allow the United States, Japan, and Vietnam to make port calls. Philippine’s possible plan of developing the island paradise into a military base could annoy China which already controls the majority in the disputed waters.

China on Thursday sketched out plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defence as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing that the reclamation and building work in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea was needed partly because of the risk of typhoons in an area with a lot of shipping that is far from land. "We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services" for China and neighbouring countries, Hua said.

China on Thursday sketched out plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defence as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing that the reclamation and building work in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea was needed partly because of the risk of typhoons in an area with a lot of shipping that is far from land. "We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services" for China and neighbouring countries, Hua said.

Hundreds of people in the north of the main Philippine island of Luzon left evacuation centres and returned home on Sunday after a typhoon weakened significantly as it made landfall, although officials still warned of heavy rain and rough seas. Once described as super typhoon Maysak as it bore down on the Philippines in recent days, the storm was carrying winds of 55 km ph (35 mph) and was rated as a tropical depression as it made landfall on Sunday morning. "We thank God," said Alexander Pama, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. "From a super typhoon a week ago, we now have a tropical depression.

Two people died and six were missing after a Philippine island ferry carrying students to a summer camp capsized in turbulent waters near central Romblon Island, the coastguard said on Tuesday. Twenty-eight of the boat's passengers and crew were rescued after the vessel named Sea Gold sank on Monday night. One of those who died was a crewman of a passing South Korean-registered ship, MV Sunny Road, who hit his head against his ship's whaleboat while trying to rescue children from the sinking ferry, the coastguard said.