On the 9th of October, 2008, the Philippines started to extract oil once more from its own borders via the activation of 1 of two wells in the Galoc oil field off the coast of Palawan. The Galoc field is estimated to have 10 million barrels of reserve, based on an assessment in 2006 for a 2 well development. The second oil well is expected to start production soon.

They will extract about 17~20,000 barrels of oil per day, meeting 6% of the Philippines 350,000 barrel per day oil requirement. The Galoc Oil field was discovered in 1981 but due to current cost of extraction and the price of oil in the world market then, was not deemed feasible for tapping.
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Publicly listed Roxas Holdings Inc (RHI) announced that they are evaluating 4 interested entities to partner up for their bioethanol activities in the Philippines. The four companies are comprised of foreign and local entities and are interested in either investing in the company or just the specific bioethanol project.
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Filipino-Chinese Taipan, Lucio Tan, is looking into entering the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) field for his farms with the help of Mitsubishi Corp who will do a feasibility study in two of their piggeries in Foremost Farms. This is part of their corporate social responsibility targets. The study will take about 3 months and will produce investment and capital requirements for this venture.

If determined feasible, they will be able to harvest energy from the manure of their pig farm which can be used to reduce their carbon emissions by reusing their energy as well as earn by selling the carbon credits earned from this carbon reduction project.
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Looks like my alma mater, De La Salle University, is intent on joining again the 2009 World Solar Challenge as they have announced a student competition to design the outer shell of their solar car: Sinag 2 on their school site.

Due on the 10th of October I guess I’m a little late in posting this. The contest is open to students of DLSU and has the following requirements:
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Great news as the Consolidated Congress and Senate Philippine Renewable Energy Bill has been approved by Congress paving the way for the President to sign the Bill into Law. The Senate approved this Bill yesterday. The consolidated version is a merger of House Bill No. 4193 and Senate Bill No. 2046.

If the Bill is not signed by the President within 30 days it will automatically become a law.
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