PH-China oil, gas talks to resume early 2020

FILE: Chinese Ambassador-designate to the Philippines Huang Xilian (Photo by Joyce Ann L. Rocamora via PNA)

MANILA — The Philippines and China are expecting to resume its meeting on oil and gas development in the early part of 2020, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said Wednesday.

“We are looking forward to the second meeting in the Philippines sometime early this year,” the envoy told reporters on the sidelines of the Chinese New Year reception in Makati City.

Manila and Beijing signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development in 2018 and its terms of reference last year.

“It was a very important consensus between our two leaders to develop our cooperation on oil exploration and we, both the governments, are working very closely to implement this,” he noted.

The first meeting of the intergovernmental joint steering committee on oil and gas exploration was concluded in October 2019, with the two parties agreeing to further increase its engagements and implement the points identified in the 2018 MOU.

At present, the envoy said both sides are working closely to push significant progress on oil and gas exploration in the coming meetings.

“During an Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, our two ministers also had a good meeting during where they discussed how to push forward the implementation of this consensus. I think that both are working closely on this matter and we believe that with the strong guidance of both our leaders, we will make progress in the future,” he said.