Sep. 17--THE Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded contracts for coal exploration across the country that are expected to bring in more than half a billion pesos in investments.

In simple ceremonies Wednesday, the Energy department conferred 11 coal operating contracts to the successful bid proponents at the last Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR) that was launched April of this year.

The 11 winning bidders were Oriental Energy & Power Generation Corp., Titan Exploration & Development Corp., MS-SK Coal Corp., 3 Kings Sunrise Mining Corp., Lebach Mining Corp., EOil and Gas Co. Inc., and ASK Mining & Exploration Corp.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said an estimated P580 million in fresh investments will be realized during the two-year exploration period.

The contracts give the companies the right to explore their proposed areas for coal resources. For actual commercial extraction of the commodity they would have to secure a separate environmental compliance certificate from the government.

Oriental Energy bagged coal contracts in Cebu, Quezon and Surigao del Sur, which will require P215-million worth of investments. Tita Exploration won concessions in Zamboanga Sibugay and Davao Oriental, which require a total development cost of P134 million. MS-SK Coal will have to spend P34 million for an area in Sultan Kudarat. 3 Kings Sunrise in Cebu will require P15.4 million, while EOil and Gas in Agusan del Sur, would need P115.6 million. Lebach Mining will have to spend P34.3 million in Sorsogon.

The PECR aims to spur private sector participation in the power industry.

This year's contracting round kicked off with the bidding for 30 coal exploration areas in May. Around 25 proposals were received from 14 participating companies but in the end only the 11 contracts were awarded.

Despite this, the Energy department is still optimistic that the recently awarded contracts will help the country develop its indigenous energy sources.

Although the government's long term thrust is for the development of cleaner renewable energy sources, Reyes earlier said that it considers coal as a "bridge fuel" because it may take some time before green power can fully develop in the country.

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